Liquidator says several bidders eyeing Irish blockchain venture

There have been several expressions of interest to acquire the assets of a now-liquidated software company that provides business customers with specialized online payment platforms, the Supreme Court heard.

arco Polo Network Operations (Ireland) Limited, which has a registered address at Penrose Dock, Cork, sought the appointment of liquidators last month after a proposed $12m (€11.2m) investment from Bank of America fell through.

The company has liabilities of over €5.2 million and its current liabilities exceed the total value of assets by €2.5 million.

Its biggest creditor is the Revenue which owes €2.6 million.

When the case returned to the High Court, Justice Eileen Roberts confirmed the appointment of Ken Fennell and Andrew O’Leary of Interpath Advisory Services as liquidators of the firm.

There were no objections to the application to confirm the joint liquidator’s appointments, which was made by the company’s solicitor Stephen Byrne Bl.

Stephen Brady Bl for the liquidators said his clients had taken certain steps since being appointed on an interim basis by the court in February.

The lawyer said the liquidators have been in discussions with the company’s employees, creditors and customers.

Steps have also been taken to keep the company’s platforms operational so customers can continue to use the software, Brady added.

The lawyer said there have been several expressions of interest from unnamed parties to acquire the company’s assets.

The lawyer said there was value in the software company’s intellectual property.

A number of those parties have made requests for information about the assets, the lawyer said, adding that formal bids for the assets are expected to come shortly.

The company, which began trading in 2016, provided software platforms that allowed banks and corporate customers to connect via a blockchain distributed ledger network to make transactions.

A blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems.

Often used in cryptocurrency transactions, blockchain is a system for recording information in a way that makes it extremely difficult to change, hack or cheat.

Earlier, the High Court heard that the company’s difficulties arose after it invested a lot of resources in a proposed partnership with Bank of America, which would have seen the company’s product replace the bank’s own in-house account automation service.

Last November, following the high-profile collapse of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX Trading Ltd, the bank made the decision not to invest in blockchain-related businesses.

While further discussions took place with the bank in the final months of 2022 and early 2023, the company claims that in late January the bank said it was not moving forward with the partnership.

The company claims it has made efforts to raise additional investment to cover the bank’s withdrawals, but this proved not possible, resulting in the company filing for winding up.