The Smarter Web Company PLC has filed to list preferred shares backed by its Bitcoin treasury on the London Stock Exchange, targeting what would be the UK's first pounds-sterling BTC-backed preferred stock. The Bristol firm is seeking £15 to £25 million under the ticker 'MORE,' pending FCA approval.
A Bristol-based web design firm has filed plans to IPO a new class of preferred shares under the ticker 'MORE' on the London Stock Exchange Main Market, targeting gross proceeds of £15 to £25 million. The Smarter Web Company PLC's offering would become the UK's first pounds-sterling-denominated preferred stock backed by a Bitcoin treasury.
The minimum raise required to move forward sits at £10 million, and the deal still needs regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority. If it clears both hurdles, the listing would mark a notable first for UK capital markets: a perpetual preferred share explicitly underpinned by corporate Bitcoin holdings.
From web design to Bitcoin treasury
The Smarter Web Company started in 2009 as a web design agency and began accepting Bitcoin payments in 2022. It went public through a reverse takeover IPO on the Aquis Exchange in April 2025, then uplisted to the LSE Main Market by February 2026.
It adopted a formal Bitcoin treasury policy in 2025, and as of mid-2026 reporting it holds approximately 2,878 BTC, worth roughly $178 to $181 million at recent prices. CEO Andrew Webley has framed the company as a dual-engine operation: cash-generating web services alongside systematic Bitcoin accumulation as its principal treasury asset.
How the preferred shares work
The MORE preferred shares are designed to carry a variable-rate preferential dividend and other associated rights, though they will not include voting rights. To make those payments legally possible, the company needed distributable reserves, since UK law bars paying dividends out of share premium without court approval.
Shareholders voted on June 17, 2026, to approve a £210 million reduction in the company's share premium account, and the High Court confirmed the reduction in July 2026, unlocking approximately £132.5 million in distributable reserves earmarked for the dividend obligations. Webley said the company could fund those payments through operating cash flows, the new reserves, its Bitcoin treasury, or future capital markets activity. No formal prospectus or launch date has been announced.
A UK first, built on a US model
MicroStrategy, now rebranded as Strategy, pioneered the corporate Bitcoin treasury model starting in 2020, and Japanese firms like Metaplanet have since followed. The UK, however, has been more cautious than the US or Japan in embracing crypto-linked products on its major exchanges, so a BTC-backed preferred share denominated in pounds sterling would represent a new category of investment vehicle for British and European investors.
Most Bitcoin treasury companies have relied on common equity raises or convertible debt to fund purchases. A perpetual preferred share with a variable dividend instead offers something closer to a fixed-income product, appealing to investors who want exposure to Bitcoin's balance-sheet upside without the full volatility of common equity.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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