A small UK digital marketing company is about to do something the entire British financial market has never seen. The Smarter Web Company (SWC) has completed a £210 million capital reduction of its share premium account, a technical but consequential move that sets the stage for launching the UK’s first Bitcoin-backed perpetual preferred stock.
Shareholders approved the reduction on June 17, 2026. High Court confirmation is expected around July 15, 2026. Once that rubber stamp arrives, SWC will have roughly £132.5 million in distributable reserves ready to support the preferred equity issuance.
What a capital reduction actually means
When you reduce a share premium account, you are converting locked-up accounting capital into reserves the company can actually distribute to shareholders. The structure is designed so the preferred stock issuance does not dilute common shareholders.
The asset sitting behind all of this is Bitcoin. SWC currently holds approximately 2,878 BTC, valued at between $178 million and $181 million as of early July 2026. That Bitcoin treasury is the primary collateral and economic engine for the preferred stock’s dividend promise.
