Japanese public firm Metaplanet buys another $2.5M of Bitcoin

Metaplanet, a publicly-listed investment and consulting firm in Japan, is increasing its Bitcoin investment despite a drop in BTC prices by injecting additional capital into buying the cryptocurrency.

Metaplanet took to X on July 7 to officially announce another Bitcoin ( BTC ) purchase of 42,466 bitcoins for 400 million Japanese yen ($2.5 million).

After completing the purchase, Metaplanet now holds 203,734 BTC, bought at an average price of around 10 million yen ($62,000) per coin. The average purchase price is about 7% higher than the price of BTC at the time of writing.

Metaplanet adopted Bitcoin as a treasury asset in April 2024

Metaplanet made a historic entrance into Bitcoin in April 2024, adopting Bitcoin as a treasury asset and buying its first batch of Bitcoin for $6.5 million.

Announcing the news on April 8, Metaplanet mentioned that the company’s decision to move into Bitcoin was backed by prominent industry individuals like Morgan Creek Capital founder Mark Yusko, Ordiswap founding member Jack Liu, as well as companies like Sora Ventures and UTXO Management.

Related: Why are traders shorting Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy?

Metaplanet became referred to as “Asia’s MicroStrategy,” as the company’s aggressive Bitcoin buying resembles MicroStrategy’s move into Bitcoin in 2020. MicroStrategy started buying Bitcoin in 2020 as an inflation hedge and alternative to holding cash. Since 2020, the firm collected at least 226,331 Bitcoin as of June 24, which cost the company $7.538 billion, or $35,158 per BTC.

Metaplanet’s stock tumbles as the Bitcoin price drops

Metaplanet’s move into Bitcoin has greatly impacted the company’s market momentum. The company’s stock price surged about 90% a day after the announcement. However, Metaplanet’s shares tumbled amid a significant drop in the Bitcoin price.

After peaking at 107 yen ($0.66) on June 11, Metaplanet stock declined by 25% amid Bitcoin dropping from around $70,000 to below $60,000. According to data from TradingView, the company’s stock is now trading at 80 yen ($0.5), which is still 344% higher than at the beginning of 2024.

In late June, Metaplanet announced a plan to issue 1 billion yen ($6.26 million) worth of bonds to raise money to buy Bitcoin. As previously reported, Michael Saylor’ MicroStrategy has also repeatedly announced convertible note raises in 2024 to invest more into Bitcoin.

Magazine: ‘ Raider’ investors are looting DAOs — Nouns and Aragon share lessons learned