Crypto Journalist

Anas Hassan

Crypto Journalist

Anas Hassan

About Author

Anas is a crypto native journalist and SEO writer with over five years of writing experience covering blockchain, crypto, DeFi, and emerging tech.

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Last updated: 

September 12, 2025

Smarter Web Company is exploring acquisitions of distressed competitors to acquire their Bitcoin holdings at discount prices.

According to a Financial Times report, the UK’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder with over £200 million in crypto reserves made the revelation despite its shares plummeting 73% from their mid-June peak.

Founder Andrew Webley told the publication that “there’s one that’s very attractive, there’s one that I’ve got my sights on at the moment,“ though he declined to name the acquisition target.

The Bristol-based firm would “certainly consider” snapping up other companies for their Bitcoin at a discount, Webley explained, as some crypto treasury companies now trade below the value of their Bitcoin holdings.

Strategic Accumulation Amid Market Turbulence

Smarter Web has undergone a dramatic transformation from its origins as a website design business, pivoting heavily toward Bitcoin accumulation throughout 2025 under what the company calls “The 10 Year Plan.”

The firm currently holds 2,470 Bitcoin worth approximately £200 million, having crossed the 2,000 BTC milestone in July after purchasing 225 additional coins for £19.9 million.

This aggressive strategy has generated what the company describes as a 49,198% year-to-date Bitcoin yield, positioning Smarter Web among the top 25 global corporate Bitcoin holders despite maintaining just £500,000 in remaining treasury cash.

The company’s accumulation efforts have been financed through innovative debt structures, including the UK’s first Bitcoin-denominated convertible bond worth $21 million issued to Paris-based TOBAM in August.

Unlike traditional convertible bonds, this structure denominates the principal repayment amount in Bitcoin while keeping the conversion share price fixed at £2.05, representing a 5% premium to the stock’s closing price at the time.

Webley acknowledged the dramatic valuation swings, telling the publication that “we probably got overvalued and now we’re almost certainly undervalued,” while expressing concern for shareholders who have experienced the volatility.

Despite the share price correction, the company briefly achieved a £1 billion market capitalization over the summer and has gained approximately 150% year-to-date, outperforming all but one company in the FTSE 350.

The firm appointed Albert Soleiman, former CFO of trading group CMC Markets, as chief financial officer last week as it pursues institutional investor interest and FTSE 100 ambitions.

UK Treasury Company Wave Meets Market Skepticism

Smarter Web’s acquisition strategy emerges within a broader wave of UK-listed companies adopting Bitcoin treasury models, with at least nine firms announcing similar strategy in recent months.

These companies have followed the playbook pioneered by Saylor’s MicroStrategy, which has accumulated over 638,460 BTC and achieved a market capitalization exceeding $90 billion since first purchasing the cryptocurrency in 2020.

The UK movement includes firms ranging from AI services provider Tao Alpha, which disclosed plans to raise £100 million for Bitcoin purchases, to natural resources company Panther Metals, whose shares surged 81% after buying a single Bitcoin.

However, market analysts have raised concerns about the sustainability and strategic clarity of the crypto treasury trend as hundreds of companies worldwide race to accumulate digital assets.

Eric Benoist, tech and data research specialist at Natixis CIB, warned that “the story is starting to become less attractive to mainstream investors,” noting that “there’s still no clear end game to this strategy.”

The broader corporate Bitcoin treasury movement has seen over 325 entities accumulate 3.71 million Bitcoin collectively, as per BitcoinTreasuries data, even though some industry observers question whether the market has reached saturation.

Galaxy Digital’s Michael Novogratz had previously suggested that the market may have reached “peak treasury company issuance,” while VanEck’s Matthew Sigel warned that companies issuing shares near their Bitcoin net asset value risk creating “erosion” rather than capital formation.

If executed well, Smarter Web’s acquisition strategy could bring a new paradigm in the space, potentially allowing successful treasury companies to consolidate Bitcoin holdings from struggling competitors at favorable valuations.

The approach mirrors historical debt-financed asset acquisition strategies, where savvy investors have borrowed in depreciating currencies to purchase scarce assets during market downturns.

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Discords and X threads aren’t fooling investors anymore. Web 3.0 founders must look towards AI to survive. Web 3.0 founders have to pivot.

The AI (artificial intelligence) industry has demonstrated itself to be far more apt at innovating than Web 3.0, which as an industry must accept defeat in a way and reorganize.

It would behoove AI founders to take a page out of the book of big AI companies, which have impacted lives and scooped up a big market share in short order – leaving crypto very much in the dust when it comes to the mindshare of crypto in the global consciousness versus AI.

Web 3.0 founders must ask themselves, ‘What can we learn?’

As AI becomes more powerful, and it will do so quickly, Web 3.0 will quickly become a subservient industry, dependent upon the whims of the almighty big technology corporations in control of AI technology.

Web 3.0 will likely only become lucrative and impactful by partnering with AI companies.

Web 3.0’s decentralization, which has resulted in thousands of projects promising all sorts of decentralized versions of apps that already exist, has led to the general public – including investors – not understanding which projects are for real.

Investors simply don’t know which projects can achieve results or are even offering a solution to a real problem.

DAOs, DeFi protocols and metaverse land rushes are largely a cacophony of Discord servers, Telegram groups and X threads.

For many Western investors, these business models are completely foreign. The business models of AI companies, including startups, are far more familiar.

In addition, Web 3.0 has gained a bit of a reputation for being associated with hype and scams.

The AI industry, on the other hand, has forged a clearer path towards deals that make a difference.

AI companies aren’t shilling tokens based on future promises, writing convoluted whitepapers and posting endlessly online.

They’re building groundbreaking technology from the ground up. In the AI industry, the cream has risen quickly to the top.

The world knows that it is companies like xAI, OpenAI, Google and others that dominate the marketplace.

Investors know that real innovation doesn’t come from a 10,000 NFT (non-fungible token) collection. BlackRock will tokenize bonds, not NFTs.

Partners want to make deals with the AI behemoths building out the world-changing infrastructure, such as cloud providers, chipmakers or platforms like xAI’s Grok, which has revolutionized the way in which humanity seeks out information.

Unfortunately for those of us in the Web 3.0 space – for now at least – these companies are building the future, not Web 3.0 startups.

Centralization is winning the day over decentralization. The fragmentation in Web 3.0 – the fierce competition over so little – is not nearly as appetizing to investors and strategic partners as AI monopolies.

Web 3.0 companies should start looking to partner with those companies sitting on a vast GPU supply or a proprietary data organization.

These are the companies – the ones that control algorithms – getting inventor funds.

A new way forward for crypto

Web 3.0 founders are left with no other option than to pivot. The industry has to face it and move towards a new strategy.

Big money has found it difficult to navigate the decentralized web of Web 3.0 companies.

Instead, centralized powerhouses are the ones building the future, and they could step into the crypto arena at any time and potentially outcompete crypto native incumbents.

It’s time for crypto to move on from its messaging chat and X strategy, as well as the promises of decentralization, and start working the phones to get into the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies touching technology.

It’s high time to deliver.

The idealism of Web 3.0 is proving not to mesh with reality. The quest for decentralization, ownership and democratized value creation has stalled.

In the future, Web 3.0 might further fragment.

The biggest blockchains, such as Ethereum and Solana, will begin to pin their fates on centralized solutions, increasingly looking like the tech gatekeepers they once billed themselves as disrupting.

The blockchains of tomorrow will exist as integrations into the traditional financial and technology giants, which are looking for supply chain tracking and similar solutions.

For the blockchain world, these solutions are the quickest way to real-world utility and a monopoly.

The more lofty solutions, such as decentralized data storage, are not making much progress when it comes to market share.

Memecoins, redundant DeFi protocols and incomplete metaverses are already suffering under the strain of zero sum competition between one another.

There is no crypto community. The incestuous strategic partnerships of crypto projects with each other have resulted in limited innovation.

It’s time for Web 3.0 founders to make a change. Billion-dollar partnerships are made via access to C-Suites of the world’s biggest companies – not in the world of hashtags or virtual land.

The Web 3.0 companies that don’t adapt to the fact that Web 3.0 has fallen far behind the AI industry in terms of innovation won’t be around for long.

Manouk Termaaten is the founder and CEO of Vertical Studio AI. He is a serial entrepreneur and expert in AI technologies, aiming to make AI accessible for everyone via customization tools and affordable computers.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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This update enables the assistant to perform tasks such as signing in to accounts, reading emails, making bookings, uploading files, and even connecting with services like Gmail, Google Drive, and GitHub.

However, OpenAI stated in a July 25 blog post that using the agent might put personal data at risk, particularly due to “prompt injection”. This type of attack happens when someone adds hidden instructions to content that the chatbot might read, like a blog post, website text, or an email.

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If the chatbot follows those instructions, it could take actions the user never intended, such as sharing private information or changing account settings.

In a blog post, OpenAI explained that once the agent is allowed to access connected websites, it may also be able to view sensitive information, such as emails, files, or login data.

The post also noted that attackers could try to trick the assistant by hiding commands in everyday text. If that works, the assistant might send data to an unauthorized user or perform actions without the user’s knowledge.

OpenAI first announced the agent on July 17. At the time, the full launch was planned for a few days later, but it ended up being released on July 24, along with an update to the ChatGPT app.

Recently, xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) company, fixed the problems with Grok 4’s offensive responses. What did the company say? Read the full story.

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Recycled buzzwords and hashtags are not enough in the modern Web 3.0 market.

If you want to break through in today’s Web 3.0 space, the only way to do that is by creating a monopoly in something consumers want. Very few times has this been done in blockchain.

Bitcoin stands as a new asset class, while Ethereum has proven viable for creating mainly NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

There is a class of blockchain firms serving traditional financial markets as well as experimenting with stablecoins, RWAs (real-world assets) and more.

And while these innovations may make a global impact, they will be dominated by a few players. That is becoming clearer, especially as Web 3.0 takes a backseat to AI.

At this point in Web 3.0’s evolution, nobody cares about your whitepaper, roadmap, tokenomics or governance model. It’s no longer 2016.

You’re not going to build the next unicorn through hashtags and recycled ideas. Your minute on-chain metrics are meaningless in the grand scheme of all things crypto.

All it shows is a lack of adoption and a lack of product market fit, or in other words, value.

As a Web 3.0 founder, your survival depends on the uniqueness of your project. You must understand and clearly explain what makes both you and your project not just special but truly one-of-a-kind.

Your individuality, as well as that of your company, is your biggest strength. Remember this important truth.

The best way to make your project unique entails carving out a monopoly in a niche that solves a big problem.

If you find yourself leaning into jargon, perhaps your idea serves no purpose. Perhaps not even you know what it is you are attempting to do. It could be merely that the timing is wrong.

Either way, your project must have tangible benefits for consumers and deliver it at least 10 times better than the next best.

Ask yourself this question: Is your company story just a rehash of the same old buzzwords Web 3.0 has been throwing around now for more than a decade?

If so, you might find resistance gaining traction as you share your story on X and LinkedIn. People have heard it all before.

Are you highlighting the correct parts of your expertise and real-world experience?

Are your product launches and milestones solving problems for consumers, or are they announcements for the sake of announcements? Avoid those.

If your consumer can’t experience an announcement for themselves, don’t bother with the public relations aspect. Save that for when you have something that can improve people’s lives.

While you are free to publish insights and case studies on your project, they should be hyper-focused on the unique aspects of your project.

Don’t write whitepapers that are not focused on your core strengths and your mission.

What does your team do better than any other team in the Web 3.0 space? All of your team’s energy should go towards this strength.

Generally speaking, avoid side quests in business. Many founders grow bored with their initial vision, start a side quest, get spread too thin and run out of business.

Stay focused on building a monopoly within Web 3.0.

Many Web 3.0 companies put too much energy into incestuous partnerships with other Web 3.0 companies, with minimal innovation.

Instead, you must look towards large corporations for partnerships that will impact your business in the way you want.

Instead of focusing on partnerships with Web 3.0 companies, focus on partnerships with companies outside the space, like from the red-hot AI industry.

These are the partnerships you should be announcing on social media, not partnerships with other early-stage Web 3.0 companies.

This doesn’t mean you should not attend hackathons and Web 3.0 conferences, but perhaps the purpose there will be to tap into consumers, not partners.

When you do speak at conferences, do you offer a unique perspective compared with the rest of the speakers and panelists, or are you repeating views of the industry that have been flogged to death already?

Again, you must consider what makes your view or work in the industry unique and lean into that and only that.

When you speak before an audience, take risks. Make your wildest claims, assuming they’re backed by logic and reason.

Instead of posting into the void on social media – or cross-promoting projects for joint marketing campaigns, AMAs (ask me anything) and more – reach out to the largest technology journals in the world, including Reuters, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch and others.

Reach out to the largest publications in your region. You may not hear back, but these are the publications with the readers you want to know your name.

Offer them your insights on timely technology news stories.

Don’t chase every opportunity. Focus on the big pieces of your empire – that is, big product shipments, behemoth partnerships and mainstream press.

One deal with a high-impact venture capital firm, technology company or protocol can be worth 10,000 small ones. It’s similar for constant exposure in the mainstream compared to industry publications.

Building a monopoly is not about testing pitches – it’s about providing value. If the market accepts you, the venture capitalists will surely follow.

Web 3.0 projects have to move beyond partnering with other niche Web 3.0 projects. Hype-driven companies are no longer making a splash in Web 3.0.

Founders must be unique, and so too must their projects. Crypto bubbles are not creating viable startups anymore.

The Web 3.0 projects of today are those solving real problems and showing tangible results. Most past the buzzwords and tiny wins.

Build what matters – only then will the Web 3.0 market and beyond take notice.

Archer Wolfe is the CEO and founder of 1stimpression.com, a premium personal branding agency based out of Hong Kong. He is also the co-founder of MohrWolfe, a serial entrepreneur, professional poly-athlete and international rescue operator. By age 28, he built the largest BTM company in the world and successfully exited two companies in fintech.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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Web 3.0 founders must start acting like Web 2.0 founders or perish. It’s time for Web 3.0 to grow up.

If teams are going to compete with the technology behemoths of today, they have to abandon the long-held crypto strategy of opacity and secrecy.

Instead, they must doxx and present themselves as professionals online and in person in order to gain trust.

Team members – most importantly, executives – should reveal their verified identities online on platforms such as LinkedIn, X and others.

They should participate in conferences – not in hoodies and jeans – but in three-piece suits. It is more likely you will be taken seriously than if you are in the garb of a high schooler.

Moreover, executives in Web 3.0 might consider starting their own podcasts aimed at high-value guests, with whom they might strike up a partnership as the relationship develops.

Doxxed team members from your company’s marketing team can host weekly podcasts with other high-value guests.

Now, just because you have a public profile doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice privacy.

You can still keep information about much of your family private, unless you end up leading a unicorn and skyrocket to global stardom, which happens too few.

Otherwise, your public persona can be strictly professional.

Instead of creating DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) out of thin air, register a proper legal entity.

In the US, this might be an LLC or C-Corp in a state such as Wyoming or – to a lesser degree these days – Delaware.

If a DAO is absolutely necessary for your project, the governance must be done in a transparent fashion.

DAOs should publish governance frameworks, as well as voting mechanisms, proposal processes and treasury management. Comply with all regulations. Community managers must be doxxed.

Develop a customer service system to promptly address community feedback. This can be automated with AI tools, and people should receive prompt replies, even if they are automated.

Treat your community as partners. Post truthful and detailed information on development progress on social platforms.

Also share development logs via a public repository, such as GitHub or public Notion boards. The public should know about code commits, bug fixes and roadmap milestones.

Internal decisions should be accompanied by press releases with clear reasoning behind decisions – no jargon. Keep making progress and communicating via social media during bear markets.

Web 3.0 projects often have advisors. All too often, these advisors are the people closest to the founders, not truly strategic partners – and that’s a problem.

Instead of inviting crypto influencers to sit on a board, Web 3.0 founders should invite leading technology billionaires to advise their firms and ensure that once the advisory has been handpicked, it is filled with ardent professionals with track records of success.

The advisors should be excited about the project and available to help. In contracts with advisors, the requirement for ongoing advice might be spelled out.

This group should then be listed, along with their credentials and roles, for all to see.

Legal counsel is essential to ensure your project does not run afoul of any securities law, KYC and AML regulations and tax obligations.

Be public about your dedication to the law. Perhaps for your advisory team, recruit former regulators or legal minds.

Investors want to know for a fact that the company will persist, rather than burn out, fade away or disappear in the night – like so many Web 3.0 projects heretofore.

This is a big fear among the public – especially strategic partners and investors – given such a high failure rate of Web 3.0 projects.

We’ve seen a considerable share of DeFi projects launched fail.

What’s more, those who stick around seemingly have decreasing odds of seeing their token prices regain their old ATHs (all-time highs).

Not a good sign for potential billionaire investors who Web 3.0 founders would love to attract.

To be sure, doxxing a Web 3.0 team is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor as it comes with increased risk of digital and real-life attacks.

Nonetheless, in order to find themselves inside big tech boardrooms, it might help founders to build Web 3.0 projects like the Web 2.0 companies.

Learn from the tech giants of yesterday and today who continue to eat the world with their advancement in AI. 2025 is much different than 2014.

Web 3.0 companies must adapt – and largely, they have not.

If you want to survive in the quickly changing technology landscape, founders have no choice but to doxx their Web 3.0 company.

Founders are not exempt from this rule. This is perhaps the quickest way to separate a Web 3.0 project from the countless other projects that everybody knows are going nowhere.

If the public knows a Web 3.0 team, knows you’re structured like a real company and treat investors as partners, they will see that you are building a company designed to make waves in the overarching technology industry, rather than the Web 3.0 space.

Manouk Termaaten is the founder and CEO of Vertical Studio AI. He is a serial entrepreneur and expert in AI technologies, aiming to make AI accessible for everyone via customization tools and affordable computers.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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Nexpace, the web3 division of Nexon, is planning to launch more than a dozen applications linked to the MapleStory Universe ecosystem by early 2026. These upcoming tools are designed to give players access to parts of the game—such as character growth, item management, and questing—without needing to open the full PC client.

The new apps will be available via web browsers and mobile devices, allowing users to carry out tasks from outside the main game. The goal is to make the platform more accessible to players who have limited time or cannot always use a desktop setup.

Due later this year, the first application will support item enhancement directly from a browser.

Key Insights

• Over a dozen apps connected to MapleStory Universe are planned for release by early 2026
• First app launching by late July or August, focused on item enhancement via web browser
• These apps will allow players to progress characters, manage items, and complete tasks
• A developer hub will also be available by late 2025 to support third-party app contributions
• $NXPC token rewards will be distributed to contributors, with 80% of the supply allocated

What updates are coming to MapleStory Universe ?

Following the launch of MapleStory N in May 2025, Nexpace has begun expanding the game’s structure beyond the PC client. The game itself integrates blockchain elements, including NFT-based items and a native token ($NXPC), and operates on a custom Layer 1 network built on Avalanche.

Whilst the core gameplay remains on desktop, Nexpace has confirmed that it is building a series of companion applications that will connect directly to player accounts. These apps are intended to simplify how players engage with the game and will include tools for quests, trading, progression, and even gameplay delegation—where one player can pay another to complete routine tasks.

Nexpace said that the expansion is partly driven by the habits of long-time fans who now have less time for extended gaming sessions. According to the company, these apps will let players stay involved in the game world in shorter intervals, without needing to download large clients or be tied to a desktop.

When can we expect these apps?

The first of these new applications is expected to go live between late July and early August, beginning with item enhancement features accessible through a web browser.

Nexpace has stated that more than 12 such applications are in various stages of development. In addition to in-house tools, the company is encouraging external developers to build their own apps through its public API system. The company plans to distribute 80% of the $NXPC token supply to developers, artists, and other contributors to the ecosystem.

Currently, official integration requires approval via a Nexpace-issued API key, but a permissionless developer hub is expected by the end of 2025.

United Kingdom-based web design and marketing firm The Smarter Web Company has expanded its Bitcoin treasury, purchasing an additional 230.05 BTC for 17.97 million British pounds ($24.7 million) at an average price of 78,103 pounds ($107,126) per coin.

The London-listed firm now holds 773.58 BTC acquired at an average price of 78,022 pounds ($107,015), bringing its total Bitcoin (BTC) investment to over $82.6 million, according to a filing on Tuesday.

The purchase is part of Smarter Web’s “10 Year Plan,” a strategy launched in April to drive transparent growth through a Digital Assets Treasury Policy, which focuses on Bitcoin accumulation, to support “longer-term business value.”

The company said it still has approximately 38 million pounds ($52.3 million) in cash available to deploy into further Bitcoin buys.

Related: Kazakhstan plans to establish national crypto reserve

Smarter Web raises $62 million

The filing also detailed recent fundraising efforts that netted roughly 45 million pounds ($62 million) from a series of subscriptions and accelerated bookbuilds. These moves diluted existing shareholders’ stakes by 9%.

The update also disclosed current shareholdings for key directors following the fundraising, with CEO Andrew Webley and his family holding around 11.3% of the company.

Smarter Web began accepting Bitcoin as payment in 2023. “The Company believes that Bitcoin forms a core part of the future of the global financial system and as the Company explores opportunities through organic growth and corporate acquisitions,” the filing reads.

Related: Texas governor signs bill adding Bitcoin to official reserves

UK-based companies race to buy Bitcoin

Smarter Web’s recent purchase comes as UK-listed firms are piling into Bitcoin. Over the past week, at least nine small-cap companies on exchanges like Aquis have either announced Bitcoin purchases or plans to add the cryptocurrency to their treasuries.

These include AI services group Tao Alpha, which plans to raise 100 million pounds ($137 million) after unveiling a Bitcoin strategy, and Smarter Web Company, which purchased 196 Bitcoin to add to its growing holdings.

Furthermore, Panther Metals revealed it bought a single Bitcoin. Bluebird Mining Ventures secured 2 million pounds ($2.7 million) to purchase Bitcoin, while Vinanz attracted 3.58 million pounds ($5 million) in funding from investors.

Magazine: Secrets of crypto founders under 25 who are making bank

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