Amid the ongoing cold war between two major Bitcoin mining firms, Riot Platforms and Bitfarms, the latter has appointed a new board member to prevent a “hostile takeover.”
On June 24, Riot Platform, which owns a 14.9% stake in Bitfarms, announced its intention to replace three members of Bitfarms’ board of directors with independent directors. This decision comes after the current board members blocked Riot’s attempt to increase its ownership to more than 15%.
However, Riot later changed its initial plan to acquire all Bitfarms common shares at US$2.30 per share. On June 27, Bitfarms, the Canadian Bitcoin miner, announced the appointment of Fanny Philip as an independent board member.
With Philip’s appointment, four out of the five board members are now independent. In contrast, Riot intended to replace the original board members with three individuals who are “completely independent of Riot and Bitfarms” — John Delaney, Amy Freedman, and Ralph Goehring.
Fanny Philip is a member of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium’s mining committee and serves as the president of its Québec Chapter. Cointelegraph reached out to Riot Platforms for comment, but they did not respond.
In related news, Bitcoin miner Hut 8 recently secured a $150 million investment from Coatue Management, owned by billionaire Philippe Laffont. This investment comes as interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and the widespread adoption of Bitcoin continue to grow. Investors are placing significant bets on Bitcoin miners due to the skyrocketing demand for computational power.
Hut 8, one of the largest public mining companies in terms of computing power, is valued at $1.1 billion in terms of market capitalization. The completed transaction with Coatue Management is expected to take place on or before July 11, and the investment agreement was filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on June 21.
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