Tether posted $1.04 billion in Q1 2026 net profit and a record Tether profit reserve buffer of $8.23 billion, backed primarily by $141 billion in US Treasuries, in a quarterly attestation published May 1 by accounting firm BDO, its most detailed financial disclosure to date.

Tether profit and reserve figures were published in the company’s Q1 2026 attestation on May 1. The official Tether press release confirmed that the attestation was prepared by BDO and showed a net profit of approximately $1.04 billion and an excess reserve buffer of $8.23 billion. “Our responsibility is to make sure USDT works without compromise,” said CEO Paolo Ardoino. “That means building a system that behaves the same way in any market condition, not just when things are stable.” The Q1 profit is driven by Tether’s $141 billion Treasury position, which at prevailing Treasury bill rates above 4% would generate approximately $4 billion in annualised interest income.

The timing of the disclosure is politically consequential. As crypto.news reported, US banks have been pushing hard to slow the GENIUS Act rulemaking, partly because the act would require stablecoin issuers to hold fully verified dollar reserves. Tether has long resisted full disclosure and has never produced a Big Four audit. The KPMG engagement announced in March 2026 is the clearest sign yet that the company is preparing for the formal audit standard the GENIUS Act is expected to require. As crypto.news documented, the FDIC proposed GENIUS Act rules requiring stablecoin issuers to maintain 1:1 reserves backed by cash or highly liquid instruments, a standard Tether’s reserve breakdown technically meets but which requires full audit verification rather than an attestation to satisfy regulators and institutional counterparties. As crypto.news tracked, the GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025 and is scheduled to take full effect no later than January 18, 2027, giving Tether a finite runway to produce verified compliance.

President Trump signed an executive order on April 30 directing the Labor Department to allow Trump retirement account access to cryptocurrency, private equity, and other alternative assets inside US 401(k) plans, targeting the roughly $12.5 trillion defined-contribution market that has been largely closed to digital assets under existing ERISA guidance.

President Trump signed the Trump retirement executive order on April 30, directing the Labor Department and other federal agencies to revise ERISA guidance to allow retirement plan fiduciaries to offer cryptocurrency and alternative assets as investment options. CNBC reported that the order follows the Labor Department’s earlier rescission of Biden-era guidance that had discouraged crypto in retirement plans, calling the prior stance one that “placed a thumb on the scale.” Trump said at a White House press conference: “Low-income Americans will be eligible to receive up to $1,000 per year in matching funds deposited directly into their accounts.” Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement that “the federal government should not be making retirement investment decisions for hardworking Americans, including decisions regarding alternative assets.”

The policy targets the $12.5 trillion sitting in defined-contribution plans. Under the order, the Labor Department must revisit how plan fiduciaries are permitted to evaluate alternative assets, the SEC must assess enabling access for 401(k) investors, and the agencies must coordinate before issuing new guidance. As crypto.news reported, Coinbase’s research head David Duong had projected in January that stablecoins and tokenised products would become central to institutional crypto adoption in 2026, with regulatory clarity from the GENIUS Act the key enabling condition. A retirement account opening for crypto products directly extends that narrative by targeting retail savers rather than institutional allocators. As crypto.news documented, the Trump administration has been systematically building its institutional position in Bitcoin throughout 2026, with the strategic reserve, classified Pentagon programs, and now the retirement account access order representing three separate policy vectors aimed at embedding Bitcoin and crypto into the mainstream US financial system. As crypto.news tracked, ERISA rules could still create implementation delays, as employers will need time to revise plan options and fiduciaries will need guidance on how to meet their duty of prudence when offering volatile alternative assets alongside traditional stock and bond funds.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the House Armed Services Committee on April 30 that the Pentagon is running classified Bitcoin programs on two operational tracks — enabling the technology and countering it — and that those efforts provide the United States leverage against China “in a lot of different scenarios.”

Pete Hegseth made the remarks at an April 30 House Armed Services Committee hearing in response to questions from Texas Republican Rep. Lance Gooden about whether the US is securing a strategic advantage in Bitcoin. Crypto Integrated confirmed the confirmation of the classified effort, with Hegseth telling lawmakers: “I am a long enthusiast of Bitcoin and crypto potential. A lot of the things we are doing, enabling it or defeating it, are classified efforts that are ongoing inside our department, which do provide us a lot of leverage in a lot of different scenarios.” Gooden said Bitcoin has “evolved from a fringe asset into a matter of national security,” pointing to Iran’s Bitcoin toll at the Strait of Hormuz, North Korean ransomware activity, and China’s accumulation strategies.

As crypto.news reported, INDOPACOM Admiral Paparo confirmed in earlier Senate testimony that US Indo-Pacific Command is running a live Bitcoin node and conducting operational protocol tests, describing Bitcoin as a computer science system built on cryptography and proof-of-work with potential to impose costs in cybersecurity environments. The joint Hegseth-Paparo picture represents the most explicit public framing of Bitcoin as a defense instrument that the US government has produced. As crypto.news documented, Trump signed an executive order establishing a US strategic Bitcoin reserve earlier in 2026, seeded with approximately 200,000 government-held coins from forfeitures. As crypto.news tracked, Iran’s decision to demand Bitcoin for Strait of Hormuz transit directly linked the cryptocurrency to the active military conflict that has been Hegseth’s primary operational theatre throughout 2026. DL News noted that Russia now accounts for approximately 16% of global Bitcoin mining hashrate, while China retains roughly 12% through offshore operations, positioning Bitcoin mining geography as a direct strategic variable in the US-China competition Hegseth described.

Pi Network confirmed its sponsorship of Consensus 2026 in Miami on May 5 to 7, with co-founders Dr. Chengdiao Fan and Nicolas Kokkalis each scheduled to speak at the Convergence Stage, marking the project’s most prominent mainstream industry appearance as its Protocol 23 smart contract launch on May 11 approaches.

Pi Network confirmed it is an official sponsor of Consensus 2026 in Miami. As crypto.news reported, both co-founders are scheduled as named speakers at the Convergence Stage, with Dr. Fan addressing the intersection of verified identity and the AI era and Dr. Kokkalis joining a panel directly on the problem of distinguishing real humans from AI-generated accounts online. The event runs May 5 to 7 and is expected to draw over 20,000 attendees including institutional investors, developers, and government representatives.

The Pi Core Team posted on April 28: “526 million human KYC validation tasks have already been completed on Pi. By over 1 million verified people. AI is advancing quickly. But the hardest part of building reliable systems is still deeply human.” Fan’s Consensus session positions that verified infrastructure as a direct answer to one of the most pressing AI governance challenges of 2026.

As crypto.news documented, Protocol 22.1 deadline passed April 27, disconnecting non-compliant nodes and laying the technical foundation for Protocol 23. The May 11 Protocol 23 date creates a concentrated sequence: the largest public stage appearance in Pi’s history on May 6 and 7, followed four days later by the upgrade that transforms Pi from a mobile mining network into a programmable blockchain. As crypto.news tracked, PI climbed more than 5% on April 29 as traders positioned ahead of the Consensus week, with the token’s pattern of conference-driven price moves followed by selloffs a recurring dynamic the Protocol 23 substance will need to break.

Riot Platforms posted $167.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2026, with its newly launched data center segment contributing $33.2 million. The results show a company pivoting from a pure-play Bitcoin miner to a revenue-generating data center operator, even as its core mining business faced pressure from weaker Bitcoin prices and a stronger global hash rate. Riot produced 1,473 BTC in the quarter, while mining costs rose slightly as the company navigates a shifting profitability landscape.

The quarterly results also highlighted a strategic partnership expansion with AMD, which doubled its contracted capacity to 50 megawatts during Q1, after initially contracting 25 megawatts. Riot described this as validating its ability to execute at institutional scale as it scales its data center footprint.

Key takeaways

• Total Q1 2026 revenue: $167.2 million, with data center revenue contributing $33.2 million and engineering services at $22.2 million.
• Bitcoin mining revenue declined to $111.9 million from $142.9 million a year earlier, amid lower BTC prices and a 24% increase in the global network hash rate; Riot produced 1,473 BTC in the quarter.
• Mining costs rose, with the all-in cost to mine one BTC at $44,629 versus $43,808 in Q1 2025.
• Riot’s Bitcoin treasury remained sizable, ending the quarter with 15,679 BTC valued at roughly $1.1 billion (based on March 31 pricing). The company held $282.5 million in cash, with $76.9 million restricted, and said it sold more than $250 million of Bitcoin during the quarter.
• Riot’s stock moved higher on the earnings release, closing up 7.3% intraday; the company continues to diversify revenue through its data-center strategy as the mining environment evolves.

Riot redefines its growth engine around data centers

In its quarterly update, Riot outlined a clear shift in its business mix. While Bitcoin mining remains a core activity, the company emphasized that its data center unit is now a substantive revenue stream. Riot’s engineering services, which cover infrastructure support and related deployments, grew to $22.2 million, underscoring a diversification away from solely mining hardware economics toward a more balanced services and capacity play.

CEO Jason Les framed Q1 2026 as an inflection point: “The first quarter of 2026 marks a definitive inflection point for Riot, as we officially transitioned into an active, revenue-generating data center operator.” The announcement also confirmed AMD’s expansion of contracted capacity to 50 megawatts, following an option exercise that increased the installed capacity Riot can utilize to service its AI, HPC, and general data-center workloads.

The emphasis on data centers aligns Riot with a broader industry trend where Bitcoin miners are repurposing assets to host AI infrastructure. Industry peers have moved along similar lines, with Core Scientific converting part of its Pecos site into an AI-focused data center campus and other players such as MARA Holdings broadening exposure to AI infrastructure firms like Exaion.

Bitcoin mining metrics and treasury posture in flux

Riot ended the quarter holding 15,679 BTC, valued at roughly $1.1 billion based on March 31 pricing, with 5,802 coins pledged as collateral. The company also noted it held $282.5 million in cash, of which $76.9 million was restricted. Riot disclosed it had sold more than $250 million of Bitcoin during the quarter, a move that reflects ongoing treasury management in a volatile macro environment.

From a mining perspective, Riot’s quarterly Bitcoin production of 1,473 coins came as the company faced a tougher margin backdrop. The all-in cost to mine a single BTC rose to $44,629, up from $43,808 a year earlier, while the price environment and a roughly 24% uptick in global hash rate applied ongoing pressure on mining revenue, which totaled $111.9 million for the quarter.

Riot’s broader cash and liquidity stance remained solid, with a substantial Bitcoin treasury and a sizable cash position. The company’s data center push is intended to diversify revenue streams and offer more stable, contract-backed income as the economics of dedicated Bitcoin mining continue to vary with price cycles and network competition.

Industry backdrop: miners gravitate toward AI-scale infrastructure

The Riot narrative sits within a wider industry drift as miners explore AI-centric data centers to stabilize revenue across cycles. Reports have highlighted efforts by Core Scientific to convert significant mining capacity into AI-ready capacity, including a plan to repurpose hundreds of megawatts of power and thousands of acres for AI workloads. Other miners, including MARA Holdings and Hive, have pursued similar transitions, acquiring stakes in AI infrastructure ventures or expanding data-center footprints to host AI workloads. This trend underscores a broader market reallocation of physical assets from purely crypto-mining to AI-enabled computing.

Related reporting in industry coverage emphasizes how these shifts could redefine the sector’s profitability envelope and bias eventual investor returns toward durable, contract-backed data-center revenue rather than naked mining margins. For further context, readers may review Cointelegraph’s reporting on the CoreWeave infrastructure shift and related industry moves.

Investors will want to watch how Riot’s data center initiatives perform in the coming quarters, especially as AMD capacity comes online and as Bitcoin price dynamics and network hash rate continue to influence mining economics. The convergence of mining and AI data centers could set the tone for how crypto miners monetize physical assets in an era of tighter margins and rising equipment costs.

For additional context on the broader market dynamics driving these shifts, see Riot Platforms’ quarterly results and strategic highlights from their official release and coverage of peer activity in the sector.

Looking ahead, readers should monitor Riot’s ability to scale its data-center operations, the utilization of the 50 MW AMD capacity, and how treasury management strategies evolve alongside crypto price trends and network activity.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has scheduled a CLARITY Act roundtable for May, bringing together SEC and CFTC officials with crypto industry representatives to debate digital asset market structure jurisdiction, one of the final regulatory steps before the Senate Banking Committee’s expected markup the week of May 11.

The SEC roundtable follows the agency’s March 17 joint taxonomy with the CFTC, which named 16 digital assets as commodities and provided the framework that the CLARITY Act would convert into permanent federal statute. CoinGape reported that the SEC plans to host the roundtable in May 2026, with the Senate Banking Committee simultaneously targeting a markup the week of May 11 — the first legislative action on the bill since the Senate returned from recess. As crypto.news reported, the April markup deadline was missed because the Warsh confirmation consumed the Banking Committee’s calendar, compressing the remaining window to eight working days before the May 21 Memorial Day recess.

As crypto.news documented, Senator Lummis warned at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference that the current political alignment enabling the CLARITY Act is rare and fragile, and that failure before May 21 pushes the next opportunity to 2030. That framing makes the SEC roundtable not just an informational exercise but a public signal from the regulator that it is ready to implement the legislation, which is one of the conditions Senate Republicans cite for moving forward. Senator Scott said on Fox Business that he now has Tillis and additional Republicans on board and is targeting 13 of 13 Republican votes, though Senator Kennedy remains a holdout. As crypto.news tracked, Tillis added a new hurdle on May 1 by saying lawmakers must address law enforcement concerns about the DeFi developer liability provision before a markup can proceed — a complication that was not publicly flagged until this week.

Riot Platforms posted $167.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2026, with its newly launched data center business contributing $33.2 million.

The data center revenue helped offset a decline in Riot’s core Bitcoin mining business, which fell to $111.9 million from $142.9 million in Q1 2025, driven by lower average Bitcoin prices and a 24% rise in the global network hash rate. Riot produced 1,473 Bitcoin during the quarter, down from 1,530 a year earlier, while the average cost to mine one coin increased to $44,629 from $43,808, according to an announcement.

“The first quarter of 2026 marks a definitive inflection point for Riot, as we officially transitioned into an active, revenue-generating data center operator,” CEO Jason Les said, adding that AMD’s decision to double its contracted capacity to 50 megawatts during the quarter validated the company’s ability to execute at institutional scale.

AMD had initially contracted 25 megawatts before exercising an option to expand, bringing total contracted capacity to 50 megawatts of critical IT infrastructure.

Related: CoreWeave shows how crypto-era infrastructure quietly became AI’s backbone

Riot holds $1.1 billion in Bitcoin

Riot ended the quarter holding 15,679 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $1.1 billion based on a March 31 price of $68,222, with 5,802 coins held as collateral. The company maintained $282.5 million in cash, of which $76.9 million is restricted. Riot also said it sold more than $250 million worth of Bitcoin during the quarter.

Meanwhile, engineering revenue, which covers infrastructure services, rose to $22.2 million from $13.9 million year-over-year, adding another layer of diversification to the company’s revenue mix.

Riot’s stock closed up 7.31% at $18.50 on Friday, surging on the earnings release. The stock slipped 0.57% in after-hours trading to $18.40.

Riot shares surge on earnings news. Source: Yahoo! Finance

Related: Bitcoin Miner Bitdeer Liquidates Entire BTC Treasury, Holdings Fall to Zero

Bitcoin miners shift to AI

Bitcoin miners are increasingly shifting toward AI infrastructure as tightening mining margins push the industry to seek more stable revenue streams. As Cointelegraph reported, Core Scientific is converting its Pecos, Texas site into a 1.5-gigawatt AI-focused data center campus, repurposing 300 megawatts of Bitcoin mining capacity and acquiring over 200 acres of land to support the buildout.

Among other miners, MARA Holdings has acquired a majority stake in French AI infrastructure firm Exaion, while Hive, Hut 8, TeraWulf and Iren are also converting mining facilities into data centers.

Magazine: Bitcoin will not hit $1M by 2030, says veteran trader Peter Brandt

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