Molten marks down stakes in Ledger, Revolut

 

British VC firm Molten Ventures has written down its stake in digital finance startups Ledger and Revolut by 22% and 40%, respectively.  Per the firm's annual report, its stake in crypto wallet firm Ledger was worth £71.8M ($91.5M) at the end of Mar. 2023, down from a peak value of £91.9M ($116.4M). Additionally, Molten reduced the fair value of its stake in Revolut to £54.5M ($69M).  Considering all the write-downs in Molten's portfolio, the cumulative value of its entire portfolio is now £1.4B ($1.77B), down 16% YoY.  Molten marked down its portfolio fair value considering the recent string of crypto company failures, declining digital asset prices, and regulatory crackdowns.  Ledger defended the markdowns, saying that its prices per share have been largely stable between 2022 and 2023.  The French firm held the first close of its fresh funding round at €100M ($109M) in March 2023, giving it a valuation of €1.3B ($1.4B).  Per Pitchbook, VC capital deployment into crypto startups fell 80% from $12.3B in Q1 2022 to $2.4B in Q1 2023.