• Prenetics halts new Bitcoin purchases after recent crypto market volatility.
• The company is prioritising the growth of its IM8 supplements brand.
• Prenetics currently holds 510 BTC and over $70 million in cash reserves.

Prenetics Global, a consumer health and supplements company backed by football icon David Beckham, has reversed its short-lived plan to build a Bitcoin treasury, opting instead to focus its capital on expanding its flagship nutrition brand, IM8.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Nasdaq-listed firm confirmed that it will no longer pursue additional Bitcoin purchases, signalling a shift away from digital assets amid volatile market conditions.

The company’s management stated that the redirection of resources is aimed at accelerating growth in IM8, which the company describes as one of the fastest-scaling supplement brands in the global wellness sector.

Notably, the decision comes less than three months after the company raised $48 million in fresh equity financing that was raised for cryptocurrency accumulation as a strategic objective.

Strategic pivot after crypto market volatility

When Prenetics announced its equity raise in October, Bitcoin was trading near historic highs, hovering above $110,000.

Since then, prices have dropped significantly, reflecting broader instability across digital asset markets driven by tightening financial conditions, regulatory uncertainty, and reduced institutional risk appetite.

As of this week, Bitcoin has fallen to the high-$80,000 range, underscoring the challenges companies face when managing crypto-heavy balance sheets.

Although the fundraising round was intended to support both Bitcoin accumulation and consumer brand expansion, Prenetics’ leadership now views its health and wellness business as a clearer path to long-term value creation.

The Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Danny Yeung, said the board unanimously agreed that focusing on IM8 represents a rare growth opportunity that outweighs the potential benefits of further crypto exposure.

However, the company plans to hold on to its crypto assets despite halting new purchases.

Prenetics disclosed that it still holds approximately 510 Bitcoin alongside more than $70 million in cash and cash equivalents, providing flexibility while it reassesses capital allocation priorities.

Part of a broader corporate reassessment of crypto treasuries

Prenetics’ move mirrors a growing trend among publicly listed companies that experimented with cryptocurrency treasury strategies during bullish market cycles.

As crypto prices pull back, several firms are scaling back or abandoning aggressive accumulation plans in favour of more predictable uses of capital.

Earlier this month, Ethereum-focused treasury firm ETHZilla, backed by prominent technology investors like Peter Thiel, announced a pivot away from holding ether toward real-world asset tokenisation initiatives.

Other companies across sectors have similarly turned to share buybacks, debt reduction, or reinvestment in core operations as safer ways to support shareholder value during uncertain market conditions.

Investors in Prenetics’ October funding round included major crypto industry names such as Kraken, Exodus, and GPTX, alongside traditional investment firms.

While their participation highlighted confidence in the company’s innovation strategy, Prenetics’ latest announcement reflects a more cautious and pragmatic stance toward digital assets.

Africa-focused blockchain internet company 3air has officially abandoned the Cardano blockchain in favor of SKALE, a network powered by Ethereum, after reporting a “massive talent shortage” for Haskell developers. 

The skillset for Haskell, which is Cardano’s primary programming language, appears to be in short supply, according to 3air CEO Sandi Bitenc. After spending months actively recruiting for senior Haskell coders to build on Cardano, 3air was only able to obtain two entry-level part-time developers, said Bitenc. Although the company reached out to development agencies recommended by Cardano, 3air still wasn’t able to find the talent it needed.

By migrating to SKALE, the CEO said that 3air’s developers can begin work immediately on their development goals. He also touted SKALE’s fast transactions, zero gas fees and multichain capabilities, especially around decentralized applications, for the decision to adopt the protocol. 

SKALE launched the first phase of its mainnet in June 2020 after securing $26.75 million in funding over the previous two years. The Ethereum-compatible network, which claims to be fully decentralized, has shifted its focus to Web3, nonfungible tokens and decentralized applications.

Although Cardano has one of the largest communities in crypto, slow progress on the development front opened door to several competitors in the smart contract space. Whereas Cardano’s developers emphasize an academic approach to development, including following the peer review process, other smart contract platforms have adopted a more iterative approach to building, testing and launching their projects.

Related: If the peer review system is broken, what the hell is the point of Cardano’s reliance on it?

Cardano’s choice of Haskell, a highly academic programming language, has also been criticized for contributing to a slower and more difficult development process. One such criticism, dating back to November 2017, cited “relatively few devs” using Haskell at the time.

Nevertheless, Cardano has broadened its reach in places like Africa, with its development arm Input Output Hong Kong partnering with regional governments to improve education outcomes. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson believes that the continent could onboard 100 million new DeFi users by the middle of the decade.