Key points

  • KR1 plc (LSE:KR1) migrated from the Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE) to the London Stock Exchange Main Market in 2026, positioning itself as one of the first crypto-native companies on London's senior market.
  • Its recurring Operating Income comes from staking rewards on proof-of-stake networks; staking income for the year to 31 December 2025 was £4.8m, down from £12.8m in 2024.
  • A crypto downturn cut net Assets from £139.4m to £49.6m and NAV per share from 78.76p to 27.93p in 2025 — a valuation movement that is separate from KR1's staking income.

A digital-asset company on London's senior market

KR1 plc is an unusual arrival on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market. Founded in 2016, it is a digital-asset Business whose core activity is not trading tokens for quick gains but earning a stream of rewards by helping to run blockchain networks. In 2026 the company migrated from the Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE), where it had traded for years, to the LSE Main Market. It is worth being precise about that label: KR1 spent most of its listed life on Aquis, and only its recent uplisting makes the description of it as a Main Market stock accurate. The company frames the move as bringing a genuinely crypto-native business to London's senior market, rather than a cash shell repurposed for the sector.

That distinction matters for readers trying to understand the headline. KR1 does not simply hold cryptocurrencies and hope they rise. It generates income from staking — a process explained below — while separately holding a portfolio of tokens and early-stage blockchain investments whose Market Value rises and falls independently of that income. Keeping those two things apart is essential to judging the business, because they behave very differently and are driven by different forces.

How staking actually generates income

Most of the networks KR1 works with, including Ethereum, use a system called proof-of-stake. Instead of energy-hungry mining, these networks are secured by participants who lock up, or stake, the network's own tokens. In return for committing those assets and helping to validate transactions, stakers receive newly issued tokens as a reward. KR1's model is to stake the digital assets it owns across several networks and collect those rewards as recurring income, in effect being paid for providing security and infrastructure to the chains it backs.

The company describes this as securing Ethereum and other leading proof-of-stake networks and steadily compounding its asset base. In practice KR1 stakes across around six networks — Ethereum, Polkadot, Celestia, Cosmos, Kusama and Moonbeam — and books the resulting rewards as its principal source of operating income. This is genuinely distinct from a fund that only marks its holdings up or down: staking produces a flow of additional tokens regardless of short-term price direction. The catch is that the sterling value of those rewards still ultimately depends on token prices, so a weak market shrinks the reported income even when the underlying token flow continues.

The 2025 numbers: income down, NAV hit harder

KR1's results for the year to 31 December 2025 show how sharply that income can move. Staking income fell to £4.8 million, from £12.8 million in 2024, a drop management attributed to a broad loss of investor appetite for risk-on assets that compressed both token prices and network activity. The interim figures underline the trajectory, with staking income of £2.9 million in the first half of 2025 alone.

The valuation side of the business was hit harder still, and the two should not be confused. Total net assets fell from £139.4 million to £49.6 million over 2025, while net asset value per share dropped from 78.76 pence to 27.93 pence. The bulk of that decline reflects valuation movements — the falling market value of KR1's token holdings — rather than the operating income that staking produces. Put simply, the company kept earning staking rewards throughout the downturn even as the mark-to-market value of its portfolio shrank. Investors used to conventional companies should note that a large chunk of KR1's reported swings is unrealised revaluation, not cash trading through the business. KR1 published its Annual Report and financial statements for 2025 in April 2026.

Inside the portfolio

KR1's portfolio is where the asset-holding and valuation risks are concentrated. As at 31 July 2026 its largest position was Ethereum, valued at about £8.6 million, or roughly 27% of the portfolio, reflecting the company's substantial staked ether. Beyond that headline holding, the portfolio spreads across decentralised-finance and blockchain-infrastructure names rather than sitting in a single asset.

The next-largest disclosed positions were Nexus Mutual (about £4.1 million, or 13%), the venture fund Zee Prime II (£3.0 million, providing exposure to projects such as the decentralised AI-compute network Gensyn), the AI-focused token Venice (£2.5 million) and the oracle provider RedStone (£1.7 million). The mix captures KR1's dual character: it is part yield-generating staking operation and part early-stage venture investor in blockchain infrastructure, with some holdings still at a seed or evaluation stage and unlikely to be easily sold at their carrying value.

Risks and what to watch

The risks follow directly from the model. Both KR1's income and its net asset value are tied to volatile crypto markets, as the 2025 fall in NAV demonstrates; a recovery in token prices would flatter both, while a further downturn would compress them again. Staking rewards can also decline if networks cut issuance or if the staked tokens lose value, and validating carries technical hazards such as slashing, where a validator can forfeit staked assets for downtime or misbehaviour.

Concentration is a further consideration: with Ethereum alone above a quarter of assets, KR1's fortunes are closely tied to that single network, while its early-stage venture positions add illiquidity and the ordinary risk that young projects fail. Regulatory scrutiny of digital assets is also intensifying, and as a Main Market company KR1 now carries a heavier compliance and reporting burden than it faced on Aquis. Against this, the move to the senior market may broaden the company's investor base and profile, and existing quotes in Stuttgart and on US over-the-counter markets already give the shares wider reach.

For investors weighing the headline question, the answer is that KR1 generates income specifically through staking rewards on proof-of-stake networks — a recurring operating flow that in 2025 came to £4.8 million. That income should be read separately from the far larger, more volatile swings in the value of its token portfolio, which drove the steep fall in net asset value over the same year. Both matter to the Investment case, but they are not the same thing, and conflating them would misread how this newly promoted London company actually makes its money.