Japanese Bitcoin treasury Metaplanet has introduced a plan to add to its already significant holdings of the asset, part of a recent surge of companies that are increasing their totals.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed company said it was looking to raise $5.3 billion by issuing 555 million shares through stock acquisition rights.
In a post on the social media platform X, the company’s CEO Simon Gerovich said that the pricing of stock acquisition rights issuance “ABOVE market”…was “a notable departure from the typical 8 to 10 percent discount” of similar financings.”
“Bitcoin sets a new benchmark for capital formation,” he wrote, adding that “Bitcoin sets a new benchmark for capital formation.”
Metaplanet—which has been dubbed “Asia’s MicroStrategy”—started buying Bitcoin last year and now holds 8,888 BTC worth nearly $934 million at today’s prices. Last year, it pivoted from its core hotel and technology business to become a Bitcoin treasury. It is aiming to acquire 210,000 Bitcoin, about 1% of the overall supply, by 2027 as part of a master plan.
Metaplanet ranks among the best-known “Bitcoin treasuries”—a firm that buys and holds BTC and allows shareholders to get exposure to the asset without the risks involved in holding it directly.
The company has followed a path popularized by Nasdaq-listed Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which started buying Bitcoin in 2020. Strategy now almost exclusively works to buy BTC and investors buy its stock as a proxy to the leading cryptocurrency.
It’s the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 580,250 virtual coins—or nearly $61 billion worth of the asset.
Bitcoin was recently trading for a little over $105,000 per coin, up 1.1% over the past 24 hours. It started rallying after a two-week slump in which it has dropped 4%.
Metaplanet stock was recently trading up by 24% on Friday, according to Yahoo Finance data. The company’s share price has risen more than 600% over the past year.
Edited by James Rubin