US retail investment app Robinhood has scaled back its bid to acquire British crypto startup Ziglu amid the fall in the value of cryptocurrencies.
Robinhood announced its plan to acquire the FCA-regulated crypto firm in April, with an original price of $170 million.
But according to messages posted by Ziglu CEO Mark Hipperson on crowdfunding platform Seedrs, seen by Siftedthe bid has been reduced to $72.5 million.
If the revised deal goes for more than half of the original offering, some investors who backed Ziglu through Seedrs will see their return on investment plummet.
“Ziglu’s impressive team of highly experienced financial services and cryptocurrency experts will help us accelerate our global expansion efforts,” Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev wrote in a blog post in April.
“Together with the Ziglu team, we will work to leverage the best of both companies, exploring new ways to innovate and break down barriers for customers in the UK and Europe.”
Turbulent conditions in the crypto market, demonstrated by companies such as Three Arrows Capital and Celsius filing for bankruptcy, have put Ziglu in a weaker trading position.
In response to Robinhood’s new offer, Ziglu founder Mark Hipperson said: “The board has spent significant time in discussions with Robinhood’s CEO and executive team negotiating and refining the terms of their revised offer .
“Based on these discussions and other considerations, we believe the revised proposal … is the best and only reasonable path forward for the company.”
A Ziglu spokesperson said UKTN that the “communication that was shared was marked as highly confidential and not for public release” and that all divulgable comments “were included in this document.”
The spokesman added: “We have nothing further to add at this time.”
Ziglu previously raised more than £13m in multiple funding rounds on crowdfunding platform Seedrs.
The “crypto winter”, a term used to describe the current difficulties in the crypto-asset industry, also saw British crypto giant Blockchain.com cut 25% of its workforce in July.
UKTN Robinhood has been contacted for comment.
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