Riot Platforms owns 14.9% of Bitfarms’ shares. But the company aspires for more. Aiming to create a radical change in Bitfarms’ board of directors on June 24, Riot announced that it wanted to replace three current board members with independent directors. But Bitfarms’ current board prevented Riot from increasing its ownership above 15%.

In response to this situation, Riot withdrew its offer to purchase all shares of Bitfarms at a price of $2.30 per share. Riot explained the reason behind the decision to withdraw as “it is not possible to cooperate with the current Bitfarms Board of Directors on a potential merger.”

The Bitfarms front did not remain idle either. The company announced on June 27 that it had appointed Fanny Philip as an independent board member. With this appointment, four members of the Bitfarms board of directors are now independent. Riot’s plan to replace the original board members with John Delaney, Amy Freedman and Ralph Goehring, who were completely independent of Riot and Bitfarms, fell through.

Philip is an important name in the field of cryptocurrencies. She serves as a mining committee member of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium and president of its Québec Chapter.

The intense interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and the increasing use of Bitcoin have made the Bitcoin mining industry a favorite of investors. The rapid increase in processing power demand increases expectations that Bitcoin miners will be highly profitable in the coming period.

In this high demand environment, Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 managed to attract significant investment. Coatue Management, owned by billionaire Philippe Laffont, announced on June 24 that it will invest $150 million in Hut 8.

Explaining the rationale for the investment, Laffont said Hut 8 was “well positioned” to rapidly expand new processing capacity and take advantage of the opportunities that will arise from this situation. The investment is expected to be completed by July 11 of this year. Hut 8 filed the investment agreement in question with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on June 21.

Hut 8 is one of the largest publicly traded mining companies in terms of processing power. The current market value of the company is estimated at 1.1 billion dollars.

As the competition in the Bitcoin mining industry intensifies, the fight between Riot Platforms and Bitfarms has gained a new dimension. Bitfarms’ appointment of an independent board member disrupted Riot’s plans. It is a matter of curiosity what kind of development this situation will lead to in the sector in the coming period.