KR1 swings to profit in 2019

() has swung to a profit in its latest full year following an upswing in gains from its digital investments.

For the year ended December 31, 2019, the cryptocurrency and blockchain investor reported a profit for the year of £1.33mln compared to an £8.34mln loss in the prior year, boosted by a £2.05mln unrealised gain on digital investments compared to a £12.7mln loss in 2018.

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Commenting of the year, managing directors George McDonaugh and Keld Van Schreven said some of the company’s earliest investment in decentralised finance (DeFi) were “gaining huge traction and recognition as the market catches up with the leap forward that the technology has made”.

“The last year saw a major step change for KR1 as we became income generating and we are pleased to report £241,633 in income from the Company’s staking activities, mainly resulting from our participation in the Cosmos Network during the 2019 financial year. Going into 2020 and beyond, staking activities are becoming an evermore important area, as further promising portfolio projects such as Polkadot, Dfinity and Ethereum turn on their Proof-of-Stake blockchains”, the MDs said.

“While maximising staking yields and the utilisation of our portfolio assets has become an important area for us, our focus has always been and continues to be researching the bleeding edge of this transformative ecosystem, backing the brightest and best teams to help build out the new decentralised world of Web 3.0 and beyond”, they added.

KR1 also said that it is “an excellent position” to take advantage of “very encouraging developments”, notably the “massive success of DeFi projects in generating economic activity” on the Ethereum blockchain, which has seen prices of the cryptocurrency surge.

Shares in KR1 were trading at around 6.15p in late-afternoon on Friday.