Blue Star Capital (AIM:BLU) announced that its investee company SatoshiPay has secured German certification for research and development tax credits worth more than €900,000, tied to its Pendulum and Vortex projects.
The London-listed investment company, which backs blockchain and payments businesses, said SatoshiPay has submitted the claims to German tax authorities and expects proceeds in early 2027, with both amount and timing still subject to assessment.
SatoshiPay has indicated that receipt of the proceeds would fund more than 12 months of operations under its current plan, though the company cautioned there is no certainty over the sum or its timing.
To bridge the gap until then, Blue Star has agreed to provide SatoshiPay with an unsecured convertible loan facility of up to €50,000, carrying a non-compounding coupon of 5% per 30 days on amounts drawn, repayable from the tax credit proceeds or by 28 February 2027 at the latest.
Should any principal remain outstanding past that date, Blue Star may opt once to exchange it for a single new SAFE (simple agreement for future equity), which would convert into shares only at a later applicable event and does not touch SatoshiPay's existing SAFE arrangements.
On the commercial side, SatoshiPay said its Vortex platform has signed an international payments provider as a new client, with prospective flows potentially reaching tens of millions of dollars a month, though activation still depends on banking partner compliance and onboarding, and no volumes are guaranteed.
Vortex is also working to activate a Brazilian real account with access to the Pix payment system, intended to support liquidity within Pendulum's decentralised foreign exchange infrastructure for larger BRL-to-stablecoin transactions.
Since June 2026, Vortex has rolled out 30 product updates spanning more than 160 software changes, including a new business dashboard, partner-specific pricing and a self-service developer test environment, while Pendulum has begun testing migration of its PEN token to the Base network following the FX DEX's earlier move to the same chain.
Blue Star separately confirmed it is in advanced discussions over a potential minority investment in a business developing a decentralised, open-source browser with a built-in digital wallet, which it said could create opportunities to integrate Vortex into the browser's ecosystem.
The board said any such investment would be funded from the company's existing cash resources, with discussions ongoing and no certainty the deal will proceed.