SEC filing has Riot Blockchain closer to reinvention

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It is not often that a company can completely reinvent itself, but the recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Riot Blockchain has them closer to reaching that goal. This looks to be the near completion of the former biotech company.

After the company changed its name to Riot Blockchain in October 2017, moving away from a biotech company to a business dedicated to buying cryptocurrency and blockchain businesses, it was expected that good things would occur. The stock price rose 17% to its highest trading value in over 30 months.

The year 2018 was not a good one at Riot Blockchain. Former CEO Jon O’Rourke was removed from office in September of that year. Allegations of him being involved in a $27 million pump and dump scheme did not sit well with many inside the company nor with the SEC.

However, the challenges at the top seemed to have doomed the organization. The SEC accused O’Rourke and several of the Board of Directors of dumping their stock to investors so that they could reap millions of dollars. This led to a thorough investigation which may eventually result in charges being filed against the former CEO.

Despite the nearly year-long setbacks, Riot Blockchain looks undeterred. On Thursday they officially filed with the SEC a request to allow for the sale of nearly 3 million shares of common stock. This exchange is expected to be handled by one of their subsidiaries, RiotX Holdings, with the focus being almost exclusively on Bitcoin mining.

To assist in the endeavor, an API created by Synapse Fi will be used. This program will allow users to create accounts that are directly connected to accredited banking institutions inside the United States. This will allow customers to be able to hold and transfer either real assets or cryptocurrencies as desired.

It is hoped that this move will buoy the success of Riot. The company saw its stock drop nearly 5% on a single day a week before the announcement. The stock price is still up over the last 30 days, but the one-day downturn was a cause for alarm, especially in light of the fact that they were just seven days away from officially filing with the SEC.

As part of the filing, the company will be issuing 2,996,226 shares of common stock with 150,000 being restricted. The sale price of the common stock at the issuance of this reporting date was $3.34 a share.