Following in the footsteps of Michael Saylor, yet another publicly traded company has decided to make Bitcoin its savings vehicle of choice.
Metaplanet, an investment and consulting company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, announced on Monday that it has purchased 1 billion JPY ($6.5 million USD) worth of Bitcoin for its corporate treasury.
Per a company tweet, Metaplanet has chosen to “embrace Bitcoin as the core treasury asset of the company.”
“This strategic pivot is not just about embracing digital assets but also about pioneering a future where finance meets innovation at its core,” the firm wrote.
According to its website, Metaplanet is focused on “building bridges” between Japan and the rest of the world in both “Web2” and “Web3” environments.
“Web3” is a catch-all term for the blockchain-based era of the internet, ushering in tokenization and decentralized finance in regular life. Some of the company’s consultation services are specifically geared toward Web3 strategy and blockchain integration.
Other businesses include investment, real estate, and a “distribution business” for taking high-quality Japanese products worldwide. Some of the firm’s newest backers supporting its Bitcoin strategy include Sora Ventures, UTXO Management, and Mark Yusko – the Morgan Creek Capital co-founder who sees Bitcoin reaching $150,000 this year.
“Our transition to Bitcoin is a significant milestone in our mission to lead in the digital finance era and positions Metaplanet as a pioneer in the adoption of digital assets in Japan,” wrote Metaplanet.
Metaplanet boasts a market cap of 2.18 billion JPY – orders of magnitude smaller than that of MicroStrategy, the world’s leading company to adopt Bitcoin as its treasury reserve asset.
The latter firm – an enterprise software business turned Bitcoin development company – now owns over 1% of the entire BTC supply at 214,245 BTC ($15.39 billion).
As a public company, MicroStrategy has been able to use cheap convertible note offerings, debt issuance, and stock dilution to accrue more Bitcoin (BTC) for shareholders. For investors, this has made it a leveraged Bitcoin ETF of sorts, available well before regular Bitcoin ETFs hit U.S. public markets this year.
MicroStrategy (MSTR) has appreciated 120% year to date – roughly doubling Bitcoin’s gains. Many analysts believe this is an “unjustifiable premium” to its true BTC holdings that is bound to correct with time.