Metaplanet, a Tokyo-listed investment company has revealed plans to raise $5.4 billion by issuing 555 million shares. By doing this, the company aims to expand bitcoin holdings to 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027 per Bloomberg’s report.
“On behalf of our shareholders, we will prudently and swiftly accumulate as much Bitcoin as possible,” Metaplanet stated in a filing on Friday. The company’s shares, which were highly volatile previously, rose by 22% on Monday morning in Tokyo.
Metaplanet first announced it had bought Bitcoin on July 22, 2024, and its shares went up by 19% to $1.10. In the year since its first buy, the stock price is up by over 1,744%. Metaplanet also claims the deal is the largest-ever issuance of stock warrants in Japan and the first time moving-strike warrants, where the exercise price adjusts with the market, have been sold at or above current share prices in the country.
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According to Bloomberg, Metaplanet is among a growing number of entities that emulates Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the software maker that has amassed more than $60 billion of the original digital asset. Such companies typically finance their purchases by selling equity and convertible notes to stock market investors.
Metaplanet is allocating nearly 96% of the capital raised to buying bitcoin directly with smaller amounts earmarked for bond redemptions and income-generating strategies like selling put options. The company believes that bitcoin can be a hedge against Japan’s negative interest rates, and weakening yen.
In April, a special purpose acquisition company affiliated with Cantor Fitzgerald LP teamed up with Tether Holdings SA and SoftBank Group to form a Bitcoin accumulator named Twenty One Capital Inc., launching with nearly $4 billion of Bitcoin. More recently, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., President Donald Trump’s company, which also runs Truth Social said it raised $2.32 billion to create a Bitcoin treasury.
“Metaplanet and the rest of these companies are providing a new and material incremental source of buying demand for crypto coins and tokens and, for the time being, seem to be finding significant investor demand for their capital raises,” said Richard Galvin, co-founder of hedge fund DACM.
According to the Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich, the global economy is undergoing a “structural transformation from a traditional supply structure centered on capital and labor to a new economic foundation driven by information technology.”
Gerovich also stated, “Against this backdrop, the strategic importance of Bitcoin — an asset characterized by high scarcity, ease of custody and transfer, and the absence of credit intermediaries — is rapidly gaining recognition.”