A company backed by David Beckham has abandoned its plans to increase its Bitcoin holdings; it had previously raised $48 million to invest in crypto assets.

[Beckham-backed company abandons Bitcoin accumulation plan after raising $48 million for crypto asset investment] According to Mars Finance, on December 31st, Prenetics Global, a nutritional supplement company backed by football star David Beckham, announced the cancellation of its Bitcoin (BTC) reserve and accumulation plan. This decision comes less than three months after the company completed a $48 million funding round and explicitly stated its strategy to build a crypto asset vault. Prenetics stated that it will refocus its strategic attention on its core consumer health business, IM8, which it calls "the fastest-growing nutritional supplement brand in the industry's history." In a statement released on Tuesday, the company said it will no longer make future Bitcoin acquisitions. In October, the Nasdaq-listed company completed an oversubscribed equity financing round, with funds originally planned to be used to accelerate the construction of its Bitcoin vault and expand the IM8 brand. At that time, the price of Bitcoin was approximately $114,000, while as of Tuesday afternoon, the price had fallen back to approximately $88,000. In addition to Beckham, investors in this round of financing include Kraken, Exodus, GPTX (owned by Jihan Wu), DL Holdings, and American Ventures. The company disclosed that it currently holds over $70 million in cash and cash equivalents, as well as 510 bitcoins.