Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has announced its plan to use debt to purchase more Bitcoin, following the example of American company MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of BTC. This decision comes despite opposition from shareholders.
On Friday, the company stated that it would issue 5 billion yen ($31.9 million) in bonds in order to acquire more of the cryptocurrency. Just a few days prior, the company had already announced another bond issuance to fund its Bitcoin strategy. As a result, the total amount of money raised for Bitcoin purchases now stands at nearly $61 million.
However, the investment firm’s share price plummeted on Tuesday, indicating that investors may be more skeptical about the Bitcoin strategy. At that time, Metaplanet officially declared itself a “Bitcoin treasury company,” acknowledging its role as a pioneer in Japan’s Bitcoin ecosystem.
Currently listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Metaplanet is emulating MicroStrategy by adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet. The company initially purchased the cryptocurrency in April through a trade valued at 1 billion yen. Since then, it has been referred to as Asia’s counterpart to MicroStrategy, which currently holds 423,650 BTC, valued at over $41 billion, making it the largest public holder of Bitcoin.
According to CoinGecko, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $108,135 on Tuesday, experiencing double-digit growth over a seven-day period. However, following a more hawkish-than-expected speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday regarding future interest rates, the price of Bitcoin has since plummeted.
As of Friday morning New York time, Bitcoin is currently trading at $96,846, after dropping as low as $92,245.