Financial Infrastructure Operations on Ethereum

KR1 plc (LSE:KR1), a digital asset technology company, is pleased to announce the commencement of a new infrastructure income stream through the Nexus Mutual ("NXM") protocol. The Company has committed an initial allocation of its existing NXM holdings to underwrite discretionary cover across Ethereum's decentralised finance ecosystem ("DeFi") via Nexus Mutual staking pools. Phase one is now operational, with further NXM allocations expected during the first half of 2026.

This activity forms part of KR1's recently introduced Financial Infrastructure ("FI") Strategy, which, together with the Company's existing Technology Infrastructure ("TI") Strategy focused on staking across Ethereum and other decentralised networks, seeks to optimise the productivity of KR1's digital asset holdings through the disciplined expansion of income-generating activities at the infrastructure layer of decentralised networks.

During phase one, the Company has deployed 40,000 NXM with an aggregate fair value of approximately £1.5 million as of the day preceding the announcement, representing around 36% of its total NXM holdings, across two separate Nexus Mutual underwriting pools. These tokens are committed as underwriting capital, with expected unlock windows between 21 January 2027 and 22 April 2027. The Company intends over time to utilise a substantial majority of its remaining NXM holdings within the broader FI Strategy.

As underwriting capital, the deployed NXM is exposed to potential loss in the event that a covered protocol experiences a valid claim and a payout is approved. In exchange for assuming this risk, KR1 earns a share of underwriting premiums generated through the Nexus Mutual pools. Underwriting returns are paid in NXM tokens.

Over the past three months, annualised yields on NXM underwriting activity have ranged between approximately 2.81% and 13.31%. As NXM is a digital asset traded on cryptocurrency markets, the Company remains exposed during the lock-up period to market price volatility in NXM, which may result in fluctuations in the fair value of the deployed capital irrespective of underwriting performance.

Founded in 2017 and seed funded by KR1, Nexus Mutual has become a core pillar of the DeFi risk management ecosystem. Since launch, the protocol has:

• Provided over $6 billion in cumulative crypto coverage
• Issued more than 10,000 individual covers
• Over $18 million in valid claims approved and paid to date
• Maintained operations through multiple market cycles, including major DeFi exploits and systemic market downturns

Hugh Karp, Founder and CEO of Nexus Mutual, commented:

"Nexus Mutual risk underwriting has become a foundational layer of onchain financial systems, underpinning capital formation and providing the resilience required for DeFi to scale. It is encouraging to see an early backer such as KR1 deepen its commitment by deploying capital directly into the protocol's underwriting markets."

Peter Holsgrove, Head of Investor Relations at KR1 plc, commented:

"KR1 plc provides public market access to the infrastructure powering the global migration of assets onchain. The commencement of our Financial Infrastructure operations marks an important step in extending the productivity of our digital asset holdings, generating additional income through the active deployment of our Nexus Mutual position into underwriting markets that support DeFi."