Last Updated on August 28, 2023 by Bitfinsider

When announcing revenues of over $1 billion for the first time, Fenix International, the UK-based parent company of the dominant content subscription service OnlyFans, disclosed it had invested some of its working capital in ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market size.

According to the company’s most recent accounts, which covered the period ending on November 30, 2022 and were submitted to the UK corporate registration Companies House on August 24, “during the year, the Group diversified part of its working capital into a cryptocurrency asset (‘Ethereum’ or ‘ETH’)”.

The document also stated that “the Group’s ability to sell the cryptocurrency assets is not subject to any limitations or restrictions.”

In its financial filings, the addition was detailed under purchases of intangible assets totaling $19.89 million. However, the business also disclosed a $8.46 million overall impairment loss. “The asset has been impaired to its fair value as at the year end,” it stated. According to CoinGecko data, the price of ether decreased over the time from $4,637 to $1,217, a decline of about 75%.

Launched in 2016 and noted for its explicit content, OnlyFans has grown to be a well-liked platform for content producers to monetize their work by selling it to members.

With over 50 million new users signing up and the site welcoming over a million new content providers, its popularity skyrocketed last year. Users spent $5.5 billion on the platform in 2022, and the company reported $1.1 billion in sales, with a 525 million increase in pre-tax earnings.

The owner of OnlyFans joins businesses like MicroStrategy, SpaceX, and Tesla in declaring purchases of cryptocurrency.

In August 2020, MicroStrategy became the first publicly traded business to purchase bitcoin as part of its capital allocation plan. MicroStrategy added 467 bitcoin ($12 million) to its holdings in July, making a total of 152,800 bitcoin ($4 billion) since its most recent round of purchases six months earlier.

Although substantially lower than the $917.8 million it recorded during the same period in 2022, MicroStrategy reported an impairment loss of $24.1 million during the second quarter due to the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies.

Another company that made news for buying $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin during the 2021 bull run was Tesla, led by CEO Elon Musk. Tesla, however, sold 75% of its stakes the following year as the bear market started to take hold, citing liquidity issues brought on the COVID shutdowns in China.

According to a report published this week, SpaceX, another business owned by Elon Musk, wrote down the value of its bitcoin holdings by a combined $373 million in 2021 and 2022. It was rumored that SpaceX had sold bitcoin, although it didn’t say how much or when.

OnlyFans has already dabbled in the cryptocurrency world; in February 2022, the subscription platform announced support for verified NFT profile images that were created on the Ethereum blockchain. A few months later, two former OnlyFans executives also introduced Zoop, a marketplace for trading NFT playing cards with famous people on them.

Creators of OnlyFans flocked to the highly anticipated Friend.tech social app last week in an attempt to capitalise on the newest cryptocurrency craze based on the new Ethereum Layer 2 network Base, developed by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.