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Strategy vs. Riot Platforms: Which Bitcoin-Focused Stock Has an Edge?

By Aniruddha Ganguly | July 22, 2025, 12:24 PM

Strategy MSTR and Riot Platforms RIOT are two well-known Bitcoin-focused stocks. While Strategy is the world’s largest bitcoin treasury company, holding 607,770 bitcoins as of July 20, 2025, Riot Platforms offers infrastructure to mine Bitcoins.

Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, has been soaring due to increasing acceptance as a non-sovereign asset, as well as higher institutional and corporate adoption. Bitcoin surpassed $120,000 this month, benefiting from an improving regulatory environment. 

The passing of the GENIUS Act on July 17 has been a key catalyst for digital assets and cryptocurrencies. The Act provides a legal background to stablecoins, which are privately issued digital money, and requires stablecoin tokens' value to be equivalent to $1, always. Other pending regulations — The CLARITY Act and The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act — bode well for Bitcoin enthusiasts. 

The liberal policies of U.S. President Donald Trump have been a key catalyst in driving adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. An executive order by President Trump, which directed a working group to study and propose changes to cryptocurrency regulations, bodes well for crypto enthusiasts. In March, President Trump announced the creation of a crypto reserve, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano, which augurs well for cryptocurrency-focused stocks, including Strategy and Riot Platforms.

However, Strategy or Riot Platforms, which has an edge now?

The Case for MSTR Stock

Strategy benefits from increasing bitcoin yield, 13.7% as of April 28, 2025, keeping the company on track to reach the full-year target of 15%, which is now raised to 25%, and the bitcoin dollar gain target to $15 billion (up from the initial target of $10 billion). 

The company’s disciplined approach to capital raising through preferred equity offerings — Strike (8% convertible preferred is trading with an effective yield of roughly 9%) and Strife (10% fixed coupon perpetual preferred) — is a key catalyst. As of April 28, 2025, MSTR raised $6.6 billion through equity offerings and $3.4 billion through fixed income ($2 billion from convertible notes, and $0.7 billion each through Strike and Strife).

Strategy plans to raise $42 billion through equity issuance and $42 billion through fixed-income securities by the end of 2027. Under the current plan, the company has $21.1 billion in equity and $35.6 billion in fixed-income securities remaining to be issued. 

Strategy is benefiting from growing software subscription revenues. The company benefits from continuing cloud demand with its flagship Strategy One, which powers some of the largest analytics deployments in the world. Strategy One supports varied industries, including retail, banking, technology, manufacturing, insurance, consulting, healthcare, telecommunications and the public sector. Strategy is leveraging generative AI to automate and accelerate the deployment of AI-enabled applications across enterprises.

The Case for RIOT Stock

Riot Platforms is a vertically-integrated Bitcoin mining company offering comprehensive and critical infrastructure to mine Bitcoin. The company has been exploring the feasibility of developing a portion of RIOT’s power capacity for AI and High Performance Computing (HPC) uses. Riot Platforms’ plans to spend $155.8 million between the second-quarter and fourth-quarter 2025 timeframe to develop Corsicana Phase II, Corsicana Land Acquisition & Water Access, Kentucky Infrastructure and Kentucky Miner Purchases.

In first-quarter 2025, Riot’s Bitcoin mining operations achieved greater than 88% uptime, a significant year-over-year increase. The company produced 1,530 Bitcoin in the reported quarter. As of March 31, RIOT held 19,223 Bitcoin, up 8% sequentially. Moreover, Bitcoin yield was 7% year-to-date. The company now targets a full-year hash rate growth target of 22% (7% growth in first-quarter 2025).

Riot Platforms’ Engineering division is benefiting from the E4A acquisition. Improving supply chains is bringing material costs down, driving margins.

MSTR’s Earnings Estimate Revisions Steady, RIOT’s Improves

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MSTR’s 2025 loss is pegged at $15.73 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days. The company reported a loss of $6.72 per share in 2024.
 

MicroStrategy Incorporated Price and Consensus

MicroStrategy Incorporated Price and Consensus

MicroStrategy Incorporated price-consensus-chart | MicroStrategy Incorporated Quote

 

The consensus mark for Riot Platforms’ 2025 loss has improved four cents to $1.44 per share over the past 30 days. The company reported earnings of 34 cents per share in 2024.

 

Riot Platforms, Inc. Price and Consensus

Riot Platforms, Inc. Price and Consensus

Riot Platforms, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Riot Platforms, Inc. Quote

 

Stock Performance and Valuation: MSTR Vs. RIOT

Year to date, Strategy shares have appreciated 47.2%, while Riot Platforms have returned 37.3%. 

MSTR Outperforms RIOT

 

Zacks Investment Research

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

In terms of Price/Book, Strategy shares are trading at 3.63X, a premium compared with Riot Platforms’ 1.7X.

Valuation: RIOT is Cheaper Than MSTR

 

Zacks Investment Research

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

Both Strategy and Riot Platforms are overvalued, as suggested by the Value Score of F.

Conclusion

Strategy benefits from its policy to hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet. However, RIOT’s significant dependence on Bitcoin makes it a riskier stock due to growing volatility. Strategy’s diversified business model (though software is a very small part of the business) offers some relief to investors in this respect.

Strategy, a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company, has an edge compared with Riot Platforms, which currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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MicroStrategy Incorporated (MSTR): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Riot Platforms, Inc. (RIOT): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research

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