Metaplanet secures 1B yen loan to buy more Bitcoin

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has just resolved to secure a $6.8 million loan (1 billion Japanese yen) from one of its shareholders to buy more Bitcoin.

The loan from MMXX Ventures — a Metaplanet shareholder — has a 0.1% interest rate per annum and a six-month term starting on Aug. 8. The company revealed in a statement that it will be paid back in a lump sum.

If approximately 100% of the $6.8 million of the loan went toward Bitcoin, the firm would be able to buy an additional 118.5 Bitcoin (BTC) at current market prices.

The announcement comes just two days after Metaplanet revealed plans to raise $70 million via a stock rights offering, with $58 million of that allocated to Bitcoin investments.

Metaplanet iterated on May 13 that it’ll adopt an “entire range of capital market instruments” to bolster its Bitcoin reserves, similar to MicroStrategy’s playbook.

The firm initially adopted the strategy to hedge against Japan’s worsening debt burden and the fast-depreciating Japanese yen.

Before this, Metaplanet was a textbook “zombie” company, its CEO, Simon Gerovich, said at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in late July.

Gerovich recalled struggling to clean up Metaplanet’s balance sheet and pay down debt before realizing Bitcoin — the “apex monetary asset” — could put the company in a better position to succeed over the long term.

So far, Metaplanet has bought 246 Bitcoin — worth $13.95 million at current market prices — from seven separate purchases, Bitcoin Treasuries data shows.

The firm’s average Bitcoin purchase price is $65,145, meaning it has been down 12.8% since its first Bitcoin investment on April 23.

Google Finance data shows the company’s stock price has risen 290% since it announced its Bitcoin plan on April 9, trading at $4.39 (643 Japanese yen). However, it has been down from its year-high of $20.50 (3,000 Japanese yen), which it recorded on July 24.

This fall was exacerbated by the cryptocurrency industry’s “Black Monday” on Aug. 5, which saw Bitcoin fall 10% in a short two-hour window.