Japanese firm Metaplanet to invest $58.76M in Bitcoin

Metaplanet Inc. announced a gratis allotment of its 11th series of stock acquisition rights to all common shareholders during the company’s Board of Directors meeting.

The decision was made to raise approximately 10 billion yen worth around $69.13 million, with 8.5 billion yen worth $58.76 million set for investment in Bitcoin (BTC).

All common shareholders will receive the stock acquisition rights as of Sept. 5, with the allotment effective from Sept. 6 onward.

$58.76 million BTC investment

The firm’s decision to invest most of the raised funds in BTC is based on the long-term appreciation of the assets and the ability to hedge against currency depreciation.

The Japanese stock market recently faced its worst one-day drop since 1987, when the Bank of Japan raised rates on short-term government bonds on July 31.

The shift from 0% to 0.25% set off a chain of events that resulted in a huge sell-off of cryptocurrencies as BTC and Ether (ETH) witnessed price crashes of around 18 and 26%, respectively.

Metaplanet crypto expansion

On July 8, the publicly listed investment and consulting firm purchased $2.5 million BTC with 400 million yen for a total of 42.5 BTC.

After the purchase, Metaplanet held a total of 203.7 BTC, bought at an average of roughly 10 million yen, or $62,000 per BTC.

The firm announced its entrance into BTC in April, adopting the asset as a treasury asset and purchasing its first holdings for $6.5 million.

Metaplanet execs "zombie companies" pre-BTC

On July 25 at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Metaplanet and Semler Scientific executives expressed admiration for MicroStrategy’s BTC playbook.

Simon Gerovich, CEO of Metaplanet, explained that his firm was beginning to show characteristics associated with zombie companies before strategically pivoting into BTC.

Gerovich said that the firm eventually “realized that Bitcoin is the apex monetary asset” and would make a “great” element for the Japanese investment company’s treasury.