Shares of crypto mining company Riot Blockchain (RIOT) plunged on Thusday, giving back a portion of a parabolic rally that was largely driven by news of a major boost in hash rate capacity.
RIOT fell 20.4% to close at $62.03 on Thursday but was moving slightly higher in after-hours trading. At current values, RIOT has a total market capitalization of $4.2 billion, making it one of the largest companies in the blockchain industry.
The sharp pullback follows a more than doubling in price between Feb. 10 and Feb. 17. The weeklong rally saw RIOT peak just below $78.00 before Thursday’s pullback.
Since the beginning of the month, Riot’s stock price has gained a whopping 202%.
RIOT began its most recent parabolic rally shortly after the company announced it expected to achieve a hash rate capacity of 1.06 exahash per second with the deployment of 2,002 S19 Pro Antminers.
On Feb. 11, CEO Jason Les said:
“While we are proud of this accomplishment, we view it as the successful completion of just one of many steps of our ongoing growth plan. Riot continues to receive and deploy next-generation miners from Bitmain and remains on schedule to more than triple our currently deployed capacity by the fourth quarter of 2021.”
Just a few weeks prior, the company said it planned to achieve a hash rate capacity of 3.8 exahash per second by the end of 2021.
When Cointelegraph last covered Riot Blockchain in Nov 2020, the stock was trading at $6, having gained 500% on the year. At the time, the Colorado-based company had appointed Hubert Marleau, the former director for the listing committee for the Toronto Stock Exchange, to Riot’s board of directors.