Metaplanet completes Bitcoin acquisition for 1 billion Yen, stocks soar

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has completed the purchase of Bitcoin, for which it issued 1 billion yen ($6.26 million) worth of bonds.

Per a July 22 announcement, the firm purchased 20.38 BTC at an average price of 9,813,061 yen per BTC. The entire purchase was valued at approximately $1.2 million.

Goal accomplished

With this, the Tokyo-based firm now holds a total of 245.99 BTC, worth $16.5 million at the time of writing.

The recent acquisition is a part of the firm’s plans to buy 1 billion yen worth of Bitcoin, which was announced last month.

Metaplanet revealed that its board had agreed to issue 1 billion yen ($6.26 million) worth of bonds to raise funds to buy Bitcoin.

Under this plan, the firm acquired another 21.88 BTC on July 16 for $1.2 million. Earlier in July, the firm bought 42.5 Bitcoin off the market for 400 million yen, which was worth approximately $2.5 million at the time.

In its recent announcement, the firm said that its plans to purchase 1 billion yen worth of BTC were now complete.

The move allowed Metaplanet to acquire 104.91 BTC, with an average buying price of 9,531,162 (approximately $60,700) yen per Bitcoin.

The recent acquisition was also followed by a 19.31% surge in Metaplanet’s stock price just hours after the announcement.

To date, the stock prices have been up more than 800% since the company first announced plans to implement a bitcoin-first strategy.

Metaplanet stock price since April | Source: Google

Bitcoin as a hedge

Metaplanet was initially a budget hotel operator in Japan known as Red Planet. Later, it transitioned into a Web 3.0 and metaverse-focused entity.

In April 2024, the company announced plans to add Bitcoin to its treasury. The plans were supported by investors such as Sora Ventures, UTXO Management, and Morgan Creek Capital’s Mark Yusko.

At the time, Metaplanet said the move was a bid to protect the weakening Japanese economy.

The announcement came as the nation was suffering from one of the highest debt-to-gross domestic product ratios worldwide.

The Yen was at a 34-year low against the U.S. dollar, which even prompted intervention from the nation’s central bank.

Metaplanet said it was embracing Bitcoin “as the core treasury asset,” and purchased 1 billion yen, approximately $6.59M at the time, in Bitcoin.

According to CoinGecko, the latest purchase puts Metaplanet at number 20 in the list of largest corporate Bitcoin holders, surpassing Advanced Bitcoin Technologies.

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