Our mission is to provide long-term funding and exposure to the digital asset ecosystem supporting the most innovative decentralised and open-source blockchain networks.
KR1 plc positions itself to be a leading public investment vehicle providing institutional and retail investors with a professionally managed and diversified portfolio of digital assets.
KR1 plc was founded in 2016 and, since those early days, has primarily been investing in seed and early-stage funding rounds of foundational decentralised blockchain projects such as Cosmos ("ATOM"), Polkadot ("DOT") and many others. As the Company has grown, our investment focus has developed to include follow-on funding rounds of existing portfolio projects, later-stage investments, and specialised third-party funds in the digital asset ecosystem for particular themes. In addition to our investment activity, KR1 plc is also an active participant in staking activities on multiple decentralised networks and engages in special opportunities, such as participating in Polkadot and Kusama parachain crowdloans.
KR1 plc is a publicly listed company on the Aquis Exchange in London (KR1:AQSE) and, as such, anyone can purchase and own the Company’s shares. Set up in early 2016, KR1 plc was one of the first crypto investment vehicles globally and has one of the longest track records. The majority of other crypto investment vehicles are held privately, often with highly restricted ownership. As a public company, KR1 has several thousand investors, often bringing participation and activity to portfolio projects. Also, as a permanent capital vehicle, KR1 plc has no pressure to realise cash from portfolio holdings when investors want to exit their position as there is a liquid market for KR1 plc shares. This is in contrast to private crypto funds that usually have agreements facilitating investor redemption, often forcing a sale of their underlying portfolio assets when facing redemptions, no matter the prevailing market conditions.
KR1 plc has grown rapidly over the last years, and the Board recognise the importance of having appropriate governance controls and processes in place to reflect the size and maturity of the company. As such, highly respected individuals have been appointed to serve on KR1 plc’s board of directors, ensuring relevant oversight and strategically enhancing various areas of the business.
For key market updates, please have a regular look at our public announcements, which can be found in the 'Announcements' section of the Company’s website. KR1 plc also has an active presence on Twitter , often sharing updates from portfolio projects, relevant announcements and mentions in the media or similar. To have KR1 plc updates delivered directly to your inbox please join our Substack Newsletter .
We regularly evaluate whether KR1 plc has the appropriate listing venue. Should a decision be made regarding any listing other than AQSE it would, of course, be communicated through the official announcement channels.
KR1 plc is a permanent capital vehicle with a fixed issuance of shares, thus, liquidity is ultimately a function of secondary market supply and demand. Over the last few years, KR1 plc shares have become the highest traded security by volume on the AQSE Growth Market, which can be reviewed every month: Statistics for Primary Trading Data on the AQSE Market. As the Company has grown, a number of market makers have engaged in dealing in KR1 plc shares, improving liquidity in the stock.
The Company’s current and only sponsored public listing of KR1 plc shares is on the APX segment of the AQSE Growth Market in London, United Kingdom. Individuals in markets outside of the United Kingdom and its dependencies should pay attention to the evolving regulatory environment in their respective jurisdictions and are encouraged to take out independent legal and tax advice before making any investment in the Company's shares.
The board of directors of KR1 plc has previously been made aware of KR1 plc shares being traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker ‘K4H’ and in other markets, including an OTC market in the United States under the ticker ‘KROEF’. None of these listings have been initiated or endorsed by the Company and the Company does not accept any responsibility for these listings. At this time, the Company does not have any plans to engage in any listing activities in Germany or the United States. The Company's shares have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States and the Company's shares may not be offered, sold, resold, transferred or delivered, directly or indirectly, within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and in compliance with any applicable securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction in the United States. Further, the Company is not registered under the US Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended.
To achieve our long-term goal, we believe that transparency is important and that timely and accurate information about the underlying holdings in KR1 plc’s portfolio and the Company’s staking activities are an important element of that. We are evaluating the best way to achieve that over time. All material corporate activities are announced by the Company without delay, as required by the rules of the AQE Growth Market. Historically, we have been as detailed and transparent as possible with relevant timely announcements and have also provided details of underlying holdings in the Company’s interim and annual reports. Digital assets are a new and emerging asset class and traditional accounting practices are slowly getting to grips with the nuances (and sometimes lacking quality) of crypto data. As a public company, we have to ensure that everything we publish is accurate. The data aggregation, consolidation of accounts and the audit are extremely time-intensive processes, which are the reasons for the delay between the respective snapshots (i.e. 30 June and 31 December of each year) and the actual release of the financial reports.
Every portfolio project is regularly assessed to see whether it is achieving its goals and executing on its technical roadmap. However, fundamentally, when investing in a project, we invest for the long term to build a sustainable ‘long-only’ portfolio. We look at each investment as a multi-year process, as these projects are often technically complex and take time to develop economic stability. In the Digital Age, protocols are important foundational technologies and can have multi-decade life spans (as an example, SMTP was first introduced in 1981, over 40 years ago, and is still used today). However, at times, asset prices on secondary markets can surge ahead and if an investment increases in value substantially, we will look to manage KR1 plc’s position on an ongoing basis, potentially taking out the Company’s original investment or further drawing down on an asset to realise profits.
We generate revenue by actively participating in staking activities on ‘Proof-of-Stake’ blockchain networks (such as Polkadot and Cosmos). Generally, holders of digital assets in ‘Proof-of-Stake’ networks can stake their assets as a ‘security deposit’ to participate in block creation, network maintenance and provision of ‘security’ to the blockchain network. The participants engaging in staking then receive rewards in the networks’ native token for committing their assets for validation of the network. The revenues generated from these activities are referred to as ‘staking yields’. The staking activities do not impose any overhead or additional operating costs to the Company.
As a Company, our aim is to maximise the rewards generated on our portfolio holdings while also taking a conservative approach to the risk these activities could pose to the portfolio. A good example of this is attempting to ‘boost’ KR1 plc’s staking activities on the Polkadot and Kusama blockchain networks through contributions to certain crowdloans and parachain auctions, which feature their own incentives for participants.
KR1 plc takes a long-term view on all portfolio holdings and the incoming rewards from staking activities. As a permanent capital vehicle, we are implementing a strategy where, if the asset price is under pressure and below a certain price threshold, the Company will not liquidate its accruing staking yields for cash and, instead, postpones the realisation of yields until the market recovers. This strategy has often led to a more favourable average realised price of the staking proceeds for KR1 plc versus selling proceeds from staking activities on a daily basis.
The phrase ‘yet-to-be-determined amount of tokens’ means that in some instances it is not possible for us to detail an exact token amount due to the early-stage nature of the investment round, which is very common in seed and strategic funding rounds. Often, details concerning the token supply and its mechanics are only set when a project is close to launch and the project has already completed a major part of its technical roadmap.
Large fundraises by other crypto funds and traditional technology venture capital firms have been very beneficial for the digital asset ecosystem, bringing more talent and attention into the space. KR1 plc retains its edge with its high reputation and long track record for backing major projects since early 2016. Early-stage crypto projects seek out high-quality investors who have treated previous investments with respect and have historically shown themselves to be valuable network participants, which is something KR1 plc has built a reputation on. As a permanent capital vehicle, KR1 plc is well placed to invest in, and support, great entrepreneurs throughout the cyclical ebb and flow of the crypto markets.
In general, we always attempt to provide exposure to and claim assets that KR1 plc may be eligible for and that give material economic benefits to KR1 plc and its shareholders. Historically, examples of this are the distribution of Kusama (“KSM”) tokens considering KR1 plc’s early investment in Polkadot (“DOT”) and the Company’s engagements with various other smaller projects such as Astar’s (“ASTR”) lockdrop or Phala’s (“PHA”) stakedrop. That said, to date, proper support for claiming many of those airdrops is often missing when utilising institutional-grade digital asset custodians or certain digital asset exchanges, as the airdrops require special transactions to be claimed or simply aren’t being implemented and supported by counterparties. Thus, it is sometimes impossible for KR1 plc to access or claim certain airdrops, which can be frustrating but, unfortunately, is the ‘price to pay’ for ensuring proper security of KR1 plc’s assets on the balance sheet. Ultimately, confirmation of whether a particular asset is accessible and owned by KR1 plc can be verified through our public announcements or the details of underlying holdings in the interim and annual reports.
The Company does not currently pay a dividend. The Directors may approve the payment of dividends in the future if it is commercially prudent to do so and subject to the availability of distributable reserves. However, at present, the Directors consider that it is more prudent to retain cash to fund KR1 plc’s investment activities and that it is therefore not appropriate to give an indication of the likely level or timing of any future dividend payments.