Author：Brother Bao's positive energy
Prenetics Global, a supplements brand backed by football legend David Beckham, has canceled plans to accumulate bitcoin less than three months after it raised $48 million to help build a crypto treasury.
Instead of pursuing a bitcoin acquisition strategy, the company is realigning to "fully capitalize on the rapid growth of its consumer health brand, IM8, which it calls "the fastest-growing supplement brand in industry history." In its statement from Tuesday, Prenetics Global said it "will no longer pursue future acquisitions of Bitcoin."
In October, the Nasdaq-listed firm secured $48 million in an oversubscribed equity round to both accelerate its bitcoin treasury strategy and expand its supplement brand IM8. Besides Beckham, other investors included Kraken, Exodus, GPTX by Jihan Wu, DL Holdings, and American Ventures.
Bitcoin was changing hands at about $114,000 at the time of the announced October equity raise, but has since fallen to about $88,000 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to The Block's price page.
"Our Board and management team unanimously agreed that the most promising path to creating significant, sustainable shareholder value is to devote our undivided attention to this once-in-a-generation opportunity clearly visible in IM8," Prenetics Global CEO and co-founder Danny Yeung said.
Prenetics Global currently holds over $70 million in cash and cash equivalents, in addition to 510 BTC, it said.
The firm is far from the only so-called digital asset treasury to update accumulation plans amid a crypto market decline. Earlier this month, Peter Thiel-backed Ethereum treasury ETHZilla said had decided to focus on a real-world asset tokenization strategy instead of continuing to stockpile ether, while many other firms have launched stock buyback programs.
