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1. Riot Platforms BitGo custody: what the filing says
Riot Platforms (Nasdaq: RIOT) disclosed in a Form 8-K signed on October 14, 2026 that it is moving the custody of its digital assets and cash from NYDIG Trust Company LLC to BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association. The underlying agreement is dated October 7, 2026 and was amended on October 14. The filing does not state how much bitcoin is involved.
The report was filed under Item 1.01, the section companies use to announce a material definitive agreement, and it was signed by Chief Financial Officer Jason Chung. Riot is a Nevada corporation, and the filing identifies BitGo Bank & Trust as the party that will act as custodian going forward.
The arrangement is not a simple termination of one contract followed by a new signing. It runs through an account transfer and transition agreement among Riot, NYDIG Trust, BitGo and their affiliates. That three-way structure is designed so that assets pass from one custodian to the other under agreed terms, rather than leaving the company to coordinate the handover on its own.
Under the transition agreement, Riot's existing custodial agreement with NYDIG Trust ends automatically once the transfer is complete. The filing does not give a completion date, so the point at which NYDIG formally drops out of the picture is not yet public.
2. What the agreement covers
BitGo will hold both Riot's digital assets and its cash. That scope is worth noting, because custody agreements in the digital asset industry often cover only the tokens themselves, while cash is kept elsewhere. Placing both with one institution gives Riot a single counterparty for the holdings the arrangement covers.
The filing describes a segregation requirement. Riot's assets are to sit in accounts used only for the company, and they are not to be commingled with the assets of other BitGo clients. Commingling means pooling different clients' property in a single account, which can make it harder to show whose assets are whose if a custodian runs into trouble.
There are two stated exceptions, and both are tied to Riot's own direction. One is a temporary omnibus account used to settle trades with a BitGo affiliate. The other is an omnibus account used if Riot chooses to use BitGo's settlement services. In both cases the pooling happens only because the company asked for a service that requires it.
On ownership, the filing states that Riot keeps title to its assets. BitGo holds them in a custodial capacity and separate from its own proprietary assets. In practical terms, that means the custodian acts as a safekeeper rather than an owner, and the assets are not part of the bank's own balance sheet.
3. How are the fees, term and exit rights structured?
Riot pays a monthly fee based on the average value of the assets held in custody, according to the filing. The rate is not disclosed. A fee tied to average asset value is a common model in custody, since the cost of safekeeping and insuring holdings generally rises with the amount held.
The initial term is one year. After that it renews automatically for successive one-year periods unless either side gives notice of non-renewal at least 60 days before the current term ends. The structure gives both parties a predictable review point each year without requiring a new negotiation every time.
Riot also has an early exit. It may terminate on 14 days' written notice and pay no early termination fee, as provided by the amendment signed on October 14. For a company that holds a significant amount of bitcoin, a short notice period with no penalty preserves the ability to move assets if its needs or its view of the provider change.
BitGo, for its part, must maintain commercially reasonable insurance coverage for its custodial services. The filing does not specify the amount or the insurer, and it uses a general standard rather than a fixed dollar figure.
4. Where does BitGo's liability stop?
The filing sets a cap on BitGo's liability. It is limited to the fees paid or payable in the six months before the event that gave rise to a claim. Liability caps of this kind are standard in commercial service contracts, though the effect is notable when the assets under custody may be worth far more than six months of fees.
The cap has exceptions. It does not apply in cases of fraud, willful misconduct or gross negligence. Those carve-outs mean the limit is aimed at ordinary operational errors rather than deliberate or seriously reckless conduct by the custodian.
Readers should keep the legal features of custody in context. The assets remain Riot's property, and the segregation language is meant to keep them apart from the custodian's own holdings. The liability cap governs what BitGo owes if something goes wrong in its performance of the contract, which is a separate question from who owns the assets.
Riot has said the full agreement and the amendment will be filed as exhibits with its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026. Investors who want the complete text, including provisions the summary in the 8-K does not spell out, will therefore get it with the annual report.
Taken together, the liability cap, its exceptions and the insurance covenant describe how risk is divided between a client and its custodian. Companies that rely on a provider for safekeeping typically weigh those terms alongside the provider's security practices and regulatory status, since each addresses a different way in which a custody relationship could fail.
5. The NYDIG relationship being replaced
Riot's relationship with NYDIG as a custodian goes back to a custodial agreement dated November 1, 2023. In its annual report for fiscal 2024, Riot listed NYDIG and Coinbase as its two custodians and said NYDIG held its bitcoin in trust accounts solely for Riot's benefit.
A 2025 exchange of correspondence with securities regulators also described that arrangement and noted that bitcoin held in the accounts is not a bank deposit and is not covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. That is a standard disclosure for digital asset custody, and it applies as a reminder that custody protections differ from the deposit insurance that covers ordinary bank accounts.
Riot has not given a reason for the change of provider in the filing. The 8-K sets out the contractual mechanics, not the motivation, and any account of why the company chose BitGo over its previous custodian would be an inference rather than a reported fact.
What the document does establish is the direction of travel: one named custodian, NYDIG Trust, is being replaced by another, BitGo Bank & Trust, and the earlier agreement is designed to fall away once the transfer is complete.
Moving custody between providers is also an operational exercise. Assets must be transferred under controlled procedures, balances reconciled on both sides, and access permissions reestablished, which is one reason the filing builds the handover into a dedicated transition agreement instead of leaving it to informal coordination.
6. What a national association custodian means for a miner
The custodian is named as BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association. The words National Association in a bank's name denote a nationally chartered institution, which in the United States is supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the federal agency that charters and oversees national banks. For a public company, naming a regulated bank as its custodian is a way to show that its holdings sit with a supervised institution.
Riot is among the larger publicly traded bitcoin miners, and bitcoin is a core asset on its balance sheet. How a company like that stores its coins matters to shareholders, auditors and lenders, because custody arrangements bear directly on the safety, accessibility and reporting of a major asset.
Custody is also a field in which providers differentiate on regulatory status, insurance, security architecture and the services layered on top of storage. The omnibus-account provision in Riot's filing hints at that last point: the agreement contemplates that Riot might use BitGo's settlement services, which suggests the relationship could reach beyond plain safekeeping if the company wants it to.
None of that is a prediction about what Riot will do. The filing describes the option, and it is the company's choice whether to use it.
7. What to watch next
The most immediate open question is timing. The filing says the NYDIG agreement terminates automatically when the transfer is complete, but it gives no date, so the completion of the move will probably show up in later disclosures rather than a standalone announcement.
The second item is the full contract. Riot says the agreement and its amendment will be filed with the 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2026, which will let investors read the fee schedule, insurance terms and other provisions that the summary leaves out.
A third point is the one-year initial term. If neither party gives non-renewal notice at least 60 days before it ends, the arrangement rolls into another year, and Riot keeps the right to leave on 14 days' notice in the meantime.
For now, the verified facts are narrow and clear: a signed custody agreement, a named transition from NYDIG Trust to BitGo Bank & Trust, segregated accounts, title retained by Riot, a monthly fee linked to asset value, a one-year term with automatic renewal, and a capped liability with defined exceptions. Anything beyond that, including the size of the holdings affected and the reasons for the switch, remains undisclosed.