Fidelity Investments’ subsidiary has become Metaplanet’s largest shareholder

What’s new? A subsidiary of financial holding company Fidelity Investments, National Financial Services, has become the largest shareholder of Japan’s Metaplanet, which began actively accumulating bitcoin in April 2024, driving its security price up by more than 7400%.

NFS report

What else is known? The June 30 report indicates that National Financial Services holds a 12,9% stake in Metaplanet, that’s 84,4 million shares worth about 130 billion Japanese yen (about $820 million).

NFT, as a brokerage unit, typically acts as a custodian for retail and institutional clients trading through Fidelity’s platforms.

The acquisition of a stake in Metaplanet signals a growing demand for shares in companies that invest in bitcoin, thus giving shareholders indirect access to the opportunity to capitalize on the rise of the first cryptocurrency.

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Metaplanet has raised over $1 billion this year through a securities offering to increase its investment in BTC. The company owns 16 352 BTC with a purchase price of $1,64 billion. Given the current exchange rate, Metaplanet’s unrealized gain on the investment is $260 million.

Metaplanet ranks fifth among publicly traded companies in terms of bitcoin reserves, behind only miners Riot and Marathon, investment firm Twenty One, and analytics software company Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy).

Metaplanet is often referred to as Japan’s Strategy, as it also pursues a strategy of actively accumulating and holding BTC for the long term.

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Metaplanet, led by Simon Gerovich, recently unveiled a plan to issue 555 million shares and accumulate 1% of the total bitcoin supply, which is programmatically capped at 21 million coins.

The company also intends to invest $5 billion in its US subsidiary and use bitcoin reserves to buy financial institutions.

Metaplanet shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSX) under ticker 3350 at 1436 yen, having lost 7,8% overnight but adding 283,4% YTD. They are also available on the over-the-counter market (OTC) under ticker MTPLF at $9,36, having lost 11,2% overnight, while adding 312% YTD.

In January 2024, Fidelity launched a bitcoin-based spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) under the ticker FBTC on the CBOE, which has since raised $12,58 billion and accumulated $24,78 billion in coins under management. It is second only to the IBIT fund from BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm, in terms of inflows.

Also, last July, the spot Ethereum ETF from Fidelity began trading on the CBOE under the ticker FETH. It attracted $1,86 billion.