Metaplanet plans to buy a digital bank in Japan

What’s new? Japanese company Metaplanet plans to use its bitcoin reserves to expand its business, including by buying a local digital bank. In an interview with the FT, CEO Simon Gerovich clarified that the company aims to accumulate as much BTC as possible before doing so.

Material by FT

What else is known? Metaplanet initially operated as a hospitality operator, and in 2024 it started investing in bitcoin to hedge inflation.

It currently owns 15 555 BTC and plans to increase its holdings to 210 000 coins by 2027, which is 1% of the total bitcoin stock, which is programmatically capped at 21 million coins.

The last purchase of 2204 BTC worth $237 million at $107 700 per coin took place on July 7. The purchase price for the entire inventory is $519,3 million at $99 985 per coin. Given the current bitcoin exchange rate ($108 779), Metaplanet’s unrealized gain on the investment is $1,18 billion.

The second phase of Metaplanet’s bitcoin strategy involves using the accumulated cryptocurrency as collateral to access financing, similar to securities or government bonds.

“We’ll get cash that we can use to buy profitable businesses,” Gerovich noted.

He added that Metaplanet is considering buying a digital bank in Japan to serve retail customers.

Cryptocurrency-backed lending is not yet widespread, but banks are already exploring it. In April, for example, Standard Chartered launched a pilot program with leading crypto exchange OKX to allow institutions to use cryptocurrency and tokenized money market funds as collateral.

Gerovich ruled out the possibility of issuing convertible debt but said the company could issue preferred stock for expansion purposes.

Metaplanet’s shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the ticker 3350. They are up 345% since the beginning of the year, boosting the company’s market capitalization by more than $7 billion despite its modest earnings.

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Metaplanet is often referred to as Japan’s Strategy. Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) began accumulating bitcoin in 2020 and is now the largest holder of the asset among publicly traded companies with a balance of 597 325 coins.