Smarter Web eyes distressed rivals as UK Bitcoin treasury race tightens

Smarter Web, the U.K.’s largest BTC holder, is going on the offensive. CEO Andrew Webley is eyeing distressed rivals, seeking to aggressively expand its war chest at a potential fire-sale discount.

According to a recent Financial Times report, Andrew Webley, CEO of The Smarter Web Company, confirmed his firm is actively considering the acquisition of struggling competitors.

The primary objective is a strategic expansion of its Bitcoin (BTC) treasury by potentially purchasing BTC holdings at a significant discount to market value. This move comes amid a sharp decline in the company’s own stock price, which has dramatically underperformed Bitcoin over the past month.

Navigating a high-stakes battlefield

Smarter Web’s stock performance has starkly decoupled from the asset it holds. While Bitcoin declined just over 4% in the past month, the company’s share price plummeted approximately 35.5%, including a nearly 22% single-day drop on Friday.

The significant underperformance highlights a critical vulnerability: investor sentiment toward treasury vehicles is becoming increasingly fragile, independent of Bitcoin’s own price action.

The timing of Webley’s maneuver aligns with a sobering warning from Coinbase researchers that the sector is entering a brutal “player vs player” stage. Head of research David Duong and researcher Colin Basco recently stated that crypto-buying public companies will now compete far more fiercely for investor capital.

They predict that while a handful of “strategically positioned players will thrive,” the market segment is quickly becoming oversaturated, implying many of these treasuries will not survive long term.

Meanwhile, back in June, analysts at Standard Chartered, led by Geoffrey Kendrick, issued a prescient warning about the inherent risks of the Bitcoin treasury model. Kendrick cautioned that the premium at which these companies trade relative to their underlying BTC holdings is unsustainable, especially as access to Bitcoin through regulated ETFs and ETNs becomes easier. He ominously suggested that a drop below $90,000 could put half of all Bitcoin treasury companies underwater on their holdings.