Most weeks, these weekly updates begin with Bitcoin.
That should probably not be surprising. We are the leading Bitcoin treasury company in the UK and Bitcoin represents a significant part of our balance sheet. Our ambition to continue increasing Bitcoin per Share remains central to everything we are building.
However, Smarter Web is not just a Bitcoin treasury. We are an operating technology business with a Bitcoin treasury. In fact, in the UK, having an operating business alongside the Bitcoin treasury is an important part of the model we are building.
This week I wanted to spend a little more time talking about our operating businesses and why I believe they will become increasingly important over the years ahead.
When we announced our 10-Year Plan on 28 April 2025, just days after becoming a public company, we set out three clear areas of growth. We wanted to grow the operating business organically. We wanted to grow through acquisitions. And we wanted to build our treasury around Bitcoin.
Those three parts of the strategy were there from the beginning.
A great deal has happened since then, particularly with our Bitcoin treasury, and naturally that has attracted much of the attention. Today, the value of our operating businesses represents a relatively small part of our overall balance sheet compared with our Bitcoin holdings. But that does not make the operating businesses unimportant. Quite the opposite.
Our objective is to grow them over time. We want to grow revenues, increase recurring revenues, win more clients, expand the services we provide and generate additional cash flows that can support the wider Group.
We also intend to grow through acquisitions. In February this year we completed our first acquisition, Squarebird Agency, using a combination of cash and equity. I think this was a good example of how the different parts of our strategy can work together. We used the strength of the Company and its balance sheet to acquire a profitable operating business, bringing additional revenues, capabilities, clients and cash flows into Smarter Web.
Over time I expect us to acquire more businesses. But there is an important qualification to that statement. We will only do the right deals, at the right time, at the right valuation and with the right structure. There is no benefit in doing acquisitions simply for the sake of being able to announce another acquisition. Capital allocation matters.
There is also another advantage to our operating businesses that I think is sometimes overlooked.
Building a successful Bitcoin treasury company requires marketing. It requires investor communication, digital infrastructure, content, branding, analytics and the ability to communicate what can sometimes be a complicated investment proposition to a very broad audience.
These happen to be areas in which our operating businesses specialise.
In many respects, therefore, Smarter Web is one of its own clients. The skills and infrastructure that we have built to provide web design, development and digital marketing services to customers are also deployed across Smarter Web. That creates efficiencies, reduces the need to outsource certain activities and, perhaps most importantly, means that marketing and digital thinking are embedded within the organisation rather than simply being something we buy from an external supplier.
I believe that is a genuine competitive advantage. We can build great digital products and marketing campaigns for our clients whilst using many of the same skills to help build one of the world’s most ambitious Bitcoin treasury companies.
Technology will obviously continue changing how those services are delivered. Artificial intelligence is probably the most obvious example, and I am sometimes asked whether AI represents a threat to our operating businesses.
I see it very differently. I believe AI makes us stronger, not weaker. It gives talented people better tools. It allows us to work faster, automate repetitive processes, analyse more information, improve productivity and ultimately deliver more for our clients. The businesses that should fear AI and other emerging technologies are not necessarily businesses in our industry. They are businesses in any industry that refuse to adapt.
Smarter Web has always been a technology business. Adopting new technology is what we do.
We want to use technology, capital and Bitcoin intelligently. We want to build stronger operating businesses. We want to acquire good businesses when the opportunity and structure make sense. We want those businesses to generate growing revenues and cash flows. And we want to continue building our Bitcoin treasury and increasing Bitcoin per Share over the long term.
I do not see these as competing objectives. They are three parts of the same strategy.
Our Bitcoin treasury gives us an exceptionally strong balance sheet and, we believe, significant long-term opportunity. Our operating businesses give us revenues, cash flows, people, capabilities and customers. Acquisitions give us the opportunity to deploy capital into businesses that can add further revenues, cash generation and expertise.
Each can make the others stronger.
That was the thinking behind the 10-Year Plan when we published it in April 2025. It remains the thinking today.
Bitcoin will continue to be central to Smarter Web. My conviction in Bitcoin has never been stronger. Our ambition is to build the leading Bitcoin treasury company in the UK. But alongside that treasury, we intend to build increasingly valuable operating businesses.
Without aiming to make this into a sales pitch; if you run a business, make marketing decisions or are responsible for your company’s digital strategy, there is a reasonable chance that one of our businesses could help you.
Every day, our teams are also building websites, delivering marketing campaigns and helping businesses grow. Please get in touch with us if you would like to see how we can help your business.
Moving onto this week, it was good to see US-issued Digital Credit moving back towards its target prices.
US-issued Digital Credit, specifically STRC (Strategy) and SATA (Strive), has now had around two months trading away from their target prices. At various points, critics declared that the innovation had failed and some went further, suggesting that the issuers themselves were in trouble.
Digital Credit is, in my view, one of the most important financial innovations we are seeing. Not everyone wants to own a volatile asset like Bitcoin. Not everyone wants exposure to the ordinary shares of a Bitcoin treasury company. But a far broader group of investors are interested in generating a better return on their money.
We are still only beginning to explore what can be built around Bitcoin, particularly for investors who may never want to own Bitcoin directly. Bitcoin balance sheets, Digital Credit and Digital Money are all part of that evolution.
I believe what is being built on top of Bitcoin is one of the most exciting developments in the history of finance. Perhaps, over time, it will prove to be one of the most important financial developments the world has ever seen.
As CEO of Smarter Web, I am proud that we are able to play a small part in that journey.
This was also our second week in fairly quick succession without any regulatory announcements.
I am conscious that I have been saying regularly that the team remains incredibly busy behind the scenes. I am slightly tiring of writing it, and shareholders may be slightly tiring of reading it, but it remains true. There is a great deal happening across Smarter Web and, as always, we will share developments when we are able to do so.
Wednesday provided a rare opportunity to catch up with some of the team in person. Oliver and Mario were visiting Nick, CEO of Squarebird Agency, a business within the Group that we are extremely proud of.
One of the advantages of being part of a wider Group is the ability to bring together skills, experience and ideas from across our different businesses. Where appropriate, we can use the capabilities we have at PLC level to help the businesses we acquire grow even faster. That does not mean those businesses are dependent on us for their growth – we acquire good businesses precisely because they are already capable of succeeding independently. It simply means that when you bring more smart people together, share ideas and combine complementary skills, I believe you can produce even better outcomes.
On Friday, Jesse hosted another Smarter Web Livestream, this time with Sam Callahan, Director of Strategy & Research at OranjeBTC, the largest Bitcoin treasury company in Latin America with 3,950 Bitcoin. I was particularly pleased to see their news this week of the Digital Credit ETF they have launched in Brazil.
We are planning to do more Smarter Web Livestreams as we move forward. Our current thinking is to continue the informal discussions involving our own team, while increasingly bringing in a wide range of guests. Some will be obvious names from the Bitcoin and Bitcoin treasury world, while others may be less obvious. The common thread will simply be that they have something interesting to say that we believe shareholders will enjoy hearing.
Finally, thank you, as always, for your continued support. I believe that Smarter Web is perfectly positioned for both the short and long term. I look forward to updating you again next week.
CEO of The Smarter Web Company, the largest UK Bitcoin treasury company. With 25 years of profitable Internet experience. A developer with creative passion and marketing skills that work.
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