David Beckham-backed Prenetics ditches bitcoin purchase

Finance Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email David Beckham-backed Prenetics ditches bitcoin purchase The health sciences company, co-founded by English football icon, announcement comes as the crypto’s market capitalization continues to lose ground. By Olivier Acuna | Edited by Aoyon Ashraf Dec 30, 2025, 6:26 p.m. The health sciences firm is shifting its focus to IM8 supplements as crypto markets remain under pressure. What to know : Prenetics has halted its bitcoin purchasing strategy due to a prolonged downturn in the cryptocurrency market. The company will focus its resources on its IM8 business, which has generated over $100 million in annualized recurring revenue. Prenetics will retain its existing 510 bitcoin as a reserve asset, valued at nearly $45 million. Prenetics (PRE), a health-sciences company that raised $48 million earlier this year, partially to build a bitcoin treasury, said it decided to stop purchasing BTC amid prolonged weakness in the cryptocurrency market. The company rolled out its bitcoin accumulation strategy in June, following a model championed by Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc , in which firms raise capital to buy and hold crypto on their balance sheets. The business model gained traction earlier this year as crypto prices rose, but enthusiasm faded after the steep market downturn in October. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . On Oct. 27, Prenetics CEO and co/founder Danny Yeung announced the funding round, which included investors such as Kraken, Exodus (EXOD), GPTX and American Ventures. He said the funds would help its "IM8" business scale globally while accumulating 1 BTC daily toward a goal of $1 billion in revenue and bitcoin within five years. However, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday that it stopped purchasing bitcoin on Dec. 4 to focus its resources exclusively on IM8, which it said has generated more than $100 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR) since it launched 11 months ago. “The phenomenal success of IM8 has exceeded all expectations and scaled much faster than we originally anticipated,” Yeung said. “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 opportunity clearly visible in IM8.” Prenetics, backed and co-founded by English football icon David Beckham, said it won't allocate any existing or new capital for the purpose of buying additional bitcoin. However, it still plans to hold its existing 510 bitcoin as a reserve asset, worth nearly $45 million as of Tuesday afternoon ET. Prenetics shares have risen 189% this year, while Michael Saylor's MSTR fell nearly 48% and bitcoin dipped about 5.6%. Read more: Is the Bitcoin Digital Asset Treasury Model Broken? Architect Partners Says No Bitcoin News David Beckham More For You State of the Blockchain 2025 By CoinDesk Research Dec 19, 2025 Commissioned by Input Output Group L1 tokens broadly underperformed in 2025 despite a backdrop of regulatory and institutional wins. Explore the key trends defining ten major blockchains below. What to know : 2025 was defined by a stark divergence: structural progress collided with stagnant price action. Institutional milestones were reached and TVL increased across most major ecosystems, yet the majority of large-cap Layer-1 tokens finished the year with negative or flat returns. 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