BrewDog set to ‘tokenise’ Punks’ money

By Gary Lloyd

- Last updated on GMT

Investor news: BrewDog co-founder James Watt has defended the company's latest initiative
Investor news: BrewDog co-founder James Watt has defended the company's latest initiative

Related tags Finance Craft beer Pubco + head office Multi-site pub operators

James Watt, co-founder of Scottish brewer and bar operator BrewDog, has announced the business is working with digital finance company Globacap to give its shareholders the option of having their equity “tokenised”.

Watt said: “Now we are working with @globacap to explore giving our 210,000 Equity Punk investors the opportunity to tokenise their equity holding in our business. Watch this space.”

However, the tweet from Watt was met with negative feedback on the social media platform, to which he later tweeted: “We will, of course, consult with our community before we make any decisions here and this would be optional.”

Twitter replies

Many people assumed the move would involve BrewDog moving investors’ equity into NFTs (non-fungible tokens) or cryptocurrencies.

Replies on Twitter ranged from some threatening to sell or delete their shares to the suggestion that BrewDog had failed to get the valuation it wanted for an IPO (initial public offering) to allow it to float on a stock market and now it was “time for another gimmick”.

One response read: “Been a Punk investor for nearly a decade, and do not want anything to do with crypto/NFTs. If you do go down this route, I would hope there is an easy way for those of us who would (sadly) want to cash in our chips.”

Clarification tweet

Watt insisted in a further tweet the move was “not about NFTs or crypto”.

It read: “To clarify: 1) We would only work with a blockchain with great sustainability creds, 2) This is not about NFTs or crypto, 3) This is about finding a more efficient way to maintain a shareholder register, 4) And making it easier for EFPs to realise the value of their shares.”

During the past few months, the crypto market is believed to have lost more than £1tn in value.

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