GetCoattail Research — The Filing Tape #185. Riot Platforms through six filing lenses, as of the latest filings. Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.
The Hype
Riot Platforms (RIOT) appears on the buymewhiskey.com "Most-watched US stocks" list (checked October 25, 2026; page updated October 24, 2026; prices as of Friday, October 23, 2026) — an alphabetical table of 67 most-watched US stocks, not a popularity ranking, in which RIOT has no Filing Tape yet and its filing data is complete across all six lenses. This package cites no news event for RIOT: the attention claim rests on that listing plus the measured price tape, and nothing else.
The price tape behind the attention is a surge and then a round trip. RIOT closed 2025 at $12.67, slipped to $12.36 by March 31, 2026, then jumped 121.5% in Q2 to $27.38, eased to $20.15 by September 30, and closed the price file on October 2 at $19.73 — 27.9% below its June 30 close but still 55.7% above its 2025 year-end close. The daily refresh puts the October 23 close at $12.53 — 36.5% below the October 2 close, 54.2% below June 30, and 58.7% below the $30.32 52-week-high field. The question the filings let us ask: while the price more than doubled in Q2 and then gave back more than half of that level by October 23, what did the tracked holders, the broad market, and the company's own insiders actually do?
The Tape
| Lens | As of | What the filings show | Direction vs prior period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superinvestors (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 3 of 147 tracked managers hold; 19,921,697 shares ($545.46M reported). Situational Awareness is 85.8%. | Continuing holder +48.7%; 2 genuine new holders; no exits |
| All institutions (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 459 filers hold 315,020,885 shares ($9.63B reported). | Shares +24.63%; filers +55; reported value +168.2% |
| Insiders (Form 4) | Oct 2, 2026 | 0 buys in 90 days and in a year; 5 sells ($1.44M) in 90 days, all one officer. | Selling only; 1 buy in the whole corpus |
| Congress | Oct 3, 2026 | No member of either chamber reported a RIOT trade in the window. | None |
| 13D/G | Aug 6, 2026 | Passive only: FMR 7.6% at Jun 30, 2026; no 13D filing at all. | FMR 8.0% → 7.6% since Sep 2025 |
| Short interest | Sep 15, 2026 | 51,105,102 shares short, 13.62% of shares outstanding; 3.60 days to cover. | −5.5% vs Jun 30; −31.1% year over year; −41.0% from peak |
Chart: Riot Platforms through six filing lenses — who is actually there?
Superinvestors. The tracked register for RIOT is small and top-heavy. Three of 147 tracked managers hold 19,921,697 common shares — $545,456,064 reported — and one of them is 85.8% of it. Situational Awareness holds 17,100,000 shares, 2.31% of its portfolio, after increasing its position 48.7% in Q2 (from 11,502,137 shares, a gain of 5,597,863 shares). The two other holders are new: John Armitage's Egerton Capital with 2,628,731 shares (13.2% of the cohort, 0.70% of its portfolio) and Tortoise Capital Advisors with 192,966 shares (1.0%, 0.05%), both verified as genuine first positions. There are no exits and no September early filer holding RIOT. The cohort's implied price ($27.38) matches the June 30 close ($27.38) exactly, holder by holder. The cohort is 6.32% of the full market's reported RIOT shares and 5.31% of shares outstanding — the tracked presence is a small slice of this stock, and most of that slice is one holder.
A method note the reader should see. The Q1-to-Q2 pairing for Situational Awareness does not go through the usual same-prefix route: its Q1 register row sits under accession prefix 0002045724 (the manager's own recorded CIK), while its Q2 register row sits under prefix 0000935836. The change is nevertheless verified by a chain stated in full in the datasheet: the Q1 row's implied price ($12.36) equals the March 31 close exactly, the Q2 row is fixed by an exact total-value match and an exact RIOT-row match, and the label (+48.7%) recomputes exactly from the Q1 row. Both registers reconcile with residual zero under that chain.
Convertible notes, kept apart. Three tracked managers also hold RIOT convertible notes (CUSIP 767292AB1, 0.750% notes) — Third Point (new, $7,033,950), Oaktree Capital Management (decreased 67.4%, $52,278,722), and Aequim Alternative Investments (decreased 33.3%, $10,053,600) — totalling $69,366,272 in reported value. These are debt, not common stock: their reported unit counts are never added to the 19,921,697 common shares or to the holder count of 3.
All institutions. The broad market added shares aggressively in Q2 — and the addition is far larger than the tracked cohort. Filers rose by 55 to 459, of which 447 are long, and reported shares rose 24.63% (+62,260,926 shares to 315,020,885). Reported value rose 168.2% to $9.63 billion — faster than shares, because the June 30 close ($27.38) sits far above the March 31 close ($12.36), and value carries that price jump. Underneath, 429 filers entered and 374 exited, net +55. Excluding the tracked cohort, other institutions hold 295,099,188 shares — so the broad market's Q2 addition (+62.26 million shares) is more than three times the entire tracked stake. The tracked holders added in Q2; the broad market added much more.
Insiders. This lens shows selling only, in every window that matters. In the 90 days to October 2, 2026, insiders filed 14 forms with 0 buys and 5 sells — 65,561 shares, $1,444,984.89 — all five sells from one officer, Werner Ryan D. (SVP, CAO), in two filings: transaction July 7 (10,232 shares at $21.22; 7,596 at $21.93) and transaction August 5 (35,430 at $21.98; 9,802 at $22.82; 2,501 at $23.53). Over one year (transaction dates October 3, 2025 – October 2, 2026): 0 buys, 11 distinct sells, 495,187 shares, $12,126,192.08, from two sellers — the largest is Les Jason's 175,000 shares at $25.19 on May 11, 2026. Across the whole corpus: 1 buy, 18 distinct sells — the single buy is transaction March 17, 2025, Mouton Douglas (non-officer), 8,384 shares at $7.74, and the sells total 956,154 shares, $18,997,547.56. Each sale is counted once by transaction date: two sales appear in both an original Form 4 and its amendment (Jackman's September 10, 2025 sale, 248,168 shares; Werner's July 7, 2025 sale, 3,747 shares) — filing-count totals (12 sells in the year, 20 in the corpus) double-count them and are not used. Implied sell prices sit inside their windows' price ranges. Filing counts (14 / 36 / 58) agree exactly between the aggregate bucket and the parsed-file scan. One disclosed wrinkle: the site's insider aggregate file (as of October 24, 90-day window) shows 3 sells at $1,061,281.57 — but it covers different as-of dates and window starts, so it is not comparable to the bucket's 90-day figure, and no discrepancy is claimed.
Congress. Nothing to report, and the nothing is checked rather than assumed. RIOT has no row in any of the four congressional files within their stated windows — no combined row, no House row, no Senate row, and no member row — as of October 3, 2026. That is a zero-activity-in-window finding, not a claim that no member ever traded the stock outside those windows.
13D/G. The control register is passive-only. It holds 11 filings — 6 initial Schedule 13G and 5 amendments — and no Schedule 13D filing at all. The latest filing, dated August 6, 2026, is an amendment at the June 30, 2026 event date: FMR LLC and Abigail P. Johnson jointly report 29,645,078.97 shares at 7.6%, down from their 8.0% peak (30,372,871.19 shares, event September 30, 2025). The other passive holders are the Jane Street group (5.3% group total, event May 5, 2026), Vanguard Portfolio Management (21,819,754 shares, 5.75%, event March 31, 2026), and the Goldman Sachs group (5.3% at March 31, 2025, down to 1.2% at June 30, 2025). Jointly-reported positions are not summed: the register's cross-date total (366,778,094.72) counts each joint position once per reporting entity across different dates, so it is never quoted as an economic figure. There is no activist in this register; every holder at or above 5% (FMR, the Jane Street group, Vanguard Portfolio Management) reports on Schedule 13G.
Short interest. The bear trade is heavy but shrinking from its peak. FINRA short interest stood at 51,105,102 shares at September 15, 2026, with 3.60 days to cover and 13.62% of the 375,258,935 shares outstanding (an August 7, 2026 count). That is 5.5% below June 30 (54,086,307), 31.1% below the year-ago figure (74,182,298), and 41.0% below the series peak of 86,611,446 shares at March 31, 2025. The last five settlements trace a sideways drift with one dip: 53,394,795 (July 15), 51,572,314 (July 31), 50,048,851 (August 14), 51,866,945 (August 31), 51,105,102 (September 15) — the latest tick is a −1.47% downtick. The series is calm in step terms — across 137 settlements there is not a single move over 2× or under 0.5×. Three rows carry a revision flag; no row carries a stock-split flag.
Chart: RIOT short interest — 137 FINRA settlements, January 2021 to September 2026.
Fundamentals context. The fundamentals record is complete on the fields quoted here: shares outstanding are 375,258,935 as of August 7, 2026, revenue is $647,435,000, net income is −$663,181,000 and assets are $3,936,767,000, all for FY2025. The recorded market capitalisation is $7,103,651,754.07, on the record's own price_close ($18.93 as of October 6, 2026), not the October 23 close.
The Gap
The attention and the filing tape disagree about what kind of story this is. The most-watched list name surged 121.5% in Q2 and then fell 54.2% from its June close by October 23. The filings show that the entire tracked superinvestor presence is three holders totalling 5.31% of shares outstanding, that the one holder who matters added 48.7% in Q2 while the price surged, and that two new holders arrived with small stakes. The broad institutional market added far more — 24.63% in shares — but the 168.2% value jump overstates the share accumulation. Meanwhile the company's own insiders have not bought in the last year at all — their only buy in the whole 58-filing corpus is a single 8,384-share purchase in March 2025 — and they sold in every window, including five officer sales in the last 90 days. With Congress silent in-window and the 13D/G register holding no activist at all, there is no second tracked voice in this tape: one continuing holder, two small newcomers, a passive register, and a heavy but shrinking short position. The tape does not show a tracked crowd piling in; it shows a small tracked stake beside a much larger broad-market addition and an insider register that only sells.
What Would Change the Picture
Nothing above is a recommendation. It is a record. What would change it:
- 1. Q3 13F season (filings due by November 16, 2026). Watch whether Situational Awareness moves from its 17,100,000-share position at all, whether Egerton or Tortoise add to their first positions, and whether any tracked manager opens a first RIOT position — the register starts Q3 from three holders, so any entry or exit is measurable against that base.
- 2. A first insider buy since March 2025. Any open-market purchase after October 2, 2026 would end a run in which the last year holds zero buys; a sale larger than the 35,430-share August 5 transaction would set a new single-sale mark for the recent window.
- 3. A first Schedule 13D. Any activist filing would replace the passive-only register; an FMR move from 7.6% in either direction would also change the largest passive position.
- 4. Note-holder direction. A Third Point increase from its new note position, or a further Oaktree decrease from its already-cut note holding, would each change the debt side of the tracked register — reported separately from common shares, as here.
- 5. Short-interest direction. A rebuild back above the June 30 level of 54,086,307 — or a fall further from the March 2025 peak of 86,611,446 toward the 50,048,851 August 14 low — would each tell a different story about the heavy but shrinking bear position.
As-of & Limits
| Lens | As of | Limit or note |
|---|---|---|
| Superinvestors (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 13F figures are as of June 30, 2026, the quarter-end. Funds have up to 45 days after quarter-end to file, so this is the most recent complete picture — and it is always a lagging one. Common stock only (CUSIP 767292105); convertible-note rows (CUSIP 767292AB1, $69,366,272) are reported separately and never summed into shares or the holder count. The Situational Awareness Q1→Q2 change is verified by the CIK/label chain in the datasheet, not by same-prefix pairing — the Q2 register row sits under a different accession prefix (0000935836) than the manager's recorded CIK (0002045724). |
| All institutions (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | Reported value includes option rows by definition; implied price ($30.56 in Q2) is not a price check. Value rose faster than shares because the June close sits far above the March close. |
| Insiders (Form 4) | Oct 2, 2026 | "Zero buys in 90 days" means zero buy transactions in the 90-day window, across 14 filings. The w90 sells are transaction dates July 7 and August 5, 2026, filed July 9 and August 7. The corpus holds 1 buy and 18 distinct sells across 58 filings for issuer CIK 1167419 (filing-date span February 25, 2025 – August 14, 2026); transactions are counted once by transaction date, so two sales that appear in both an original Form 4 and its amendment are not double-counted. It is not a claim about filings outside the corpus. The site insider aggregate (as of October 24) covers a different window and is not comparable to the w90 figure. |
| Congress | Oct 3, 2026 | Zero-activity-in-window finding only; windows are the files' stated windows, not all history. The Senate file itself is asof October 1, 2026. |
| 13D/G | Aug 6, 2026 | Passive-only register; no 13D filing exists in the parsed set. Jointly-reported positions are not summed. Total shares reported (366,778,094.72) sums reporter rows across dates and counts each joint position once per reporting entity, and is not an economic total. |
| Short interest | Sep 15, 2026 | Shares-outstanding count as of Aug 7, 2026; the 13.62% ratio inherits that staleness. Series is calm (no move over 2× or under 0.5×) — read the level and the drift, not a spike. |
| Prices | Oct 23, 2026 (fresh close) | Price file ends Oct 2, 2026; the Oct 23 close ($12.53) and moves derived from it are cross-source (chart_stats) and labelled as such. |
| Fundamentals | FY2025 | Recorded market capitalisation uses the record's own price_close ($18.93 as of Oct 6, 2026), not the Oct 23 close, and is quoted only as the record's figure. |
| Hype source | Oct 25, 2026 (buymewhiskey list) | Listing only (alphabetical table, not a ranking); no news event is cited for RIOT in this article. Price moves are measured from the price file and chart_stats. |
Methodology & disclaimer: 13F holdings are long common shares unless stated; reported values include option rows for the all-institutions lens by definition. Short interest is FINRA twice-monthly settlements. Trading costs and taxes are not reflected in any figure. Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.
This article describes filings and market data for education. It is not investment advice. Data: SEC EDGAR 13F (as of June 30, 2026, filed within 45 days), Form 4 corpus checked through October 2, 2026 (58 filings for issuer CIK 1167419), House/Senate disclosures through October 3, 2026, SC 13D/G parsed register through August 6, 2026, FINRA short interest at September 15, 2026 settlement. 13F covers long positions of $100M+ managers only and is always a lagging picture. Trading costs and taxes are not reflected.
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Revision history: v1.0 — October 25, 2026. Initial publication. Signals and lens aggregates: riot_lens_data.csv. Short-interest series: riot_short_interest_series.csv.
Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.