Pires Investments plc (AIM: PIRI), the investment company focused on next generation technology, is pleased to provide an update on its investment in Pluto Digital Assets plc ("Pluto"), a technology company that is operating in the exciting digital assets sector.

Following Pluto's recent announcement of its strategic NFT partnership, the company today announced that it has acquired the assets of the innovative DeFi project, Yield Optimisation Platform ("YOP"). Pluto intends to reimagine, redevelop and relaunch the YOP platform and to support the existing protocol, community and $YOP token. 

Pluto plans to deliver YOP's vision of 'DeFi For Everyone' to the fullest extent possible. Pluto will be allocating significant budget and human resources to building a best-in-class quality decentralised finance ("DeFi") platform, which will drive value through the $YOP token.  Pluto has established a tech team to re-design and redevelop the YOP platform, initially as a Web 3.0 platform, which can deliver significant value and continue to grow the community of $YOP token holders. Taking on the assets, which include the $YOP tokens, IP, brand, and website, Pluto will be rebuilding the YOP platform to relaunch as YOP 2.0. 

The Board believes that this acquisition represents a good opportunity for Pluto and understands that it was achieved on attractive terms.  Following the announcement, the price of the YOP tokens increased substantially, further confirming the value of Pluto's involvement with the YOP project.

As announced on 9 March 2021, Pires holds 32,518,876 shares in Pluto and warrants over 24 million new ordinary shares in Pluto, subject to certain vesting conditions.

Nicholas Lee, Director of Pires, commented:

"Following shortly after the announcement of its partnership in the NFT space, this acquisition clearly demonstrates the rapid progress that Pluto is continuing to make in this very exciting sector.  We look forward to further developments as the company proceeds towards its IPO."