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Shares in Japanese hotel developer turned bitcoin investor Metaplanet soared on Monday after it unveiled plans to raise about $5.4bn to add to its already large stockpile of the cryptocurrency.
The company said on Friday it wanted to raise the funds to increase its bitcoin holdings more than twenty fold to 210,000 by the end of 2027, a hoard of 1 per cent of the total supply of the cryptocurrency that would be worth $22bn at current prices.
The Japanese group underwent “a strategic pivot” to the cryptocurrency in 2024, turning, in the words of its chief executive Simon Gerovich, from “hotelier into hodler” and becoming a bitcoin treasury company.
The aggressive buying spree follows a trail blazed by Michael Saylor, the billionaire who turned US software group Strategy into a highly leveraged bitcoin investment vehicle by purchasing thousands of the cryptocurrency. Strategy’s market valuation has hit $104bn, outstripping the value of the 580,000 bitcoin it has amassed as investors bet the value of the company’s bitcoin holdings will rise faster than the company dilutes its shares.
The rapid gains have inspired a host of copycats around the world. Metaplanet’s target of 210,000 bitcoin would make it the world’s second-largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency behind Strategy.
The price of bitcoin has been boosted by Donald Trump’s US election victory and promise to enact industry-friendly policies. His sons have also moved to ride market enthusiasm. Last month the Trump family media company announced plans to raise $2.5bn to buy bitcoin, emulating Strategy. Eric Trump, the president’s son, joined Metaplanet’s strategic board of advisers in March.
The company has not only been steadily acquiring bitcoin for its corporate treasury for a year, but has also been increasing the size of its purchases. The policy has helped raise its share price more than 8,850 per cent in the past two years, to ¥1,544 ($10.71).
It is targeting holding 100,000 bitcoin by the end of 2026, an increase from its original goal of 21,000.
Shares surged 15 per cent on Monday as investors backed its plans to raise more capital via warrants, which give investors the right to buy shares, in what the company called the “largest stock acquisition rights issuance in Japan capital markets history”.
The company says its management “measures its performance through the Key Performance Indicator (KPI), ‘BTC Yield’, which reflects the percentage growth in bitcoin per share, guiding all capital market activities”.
As well as its “bitcoin-focused operations”, Metaplanet said it “owns and operates a hotel in Tokyo, which is being rebranded as The Bitcoin Hotel” and is set to open in early 2026.
“The company holds the exclusive license for Bitcoin Magazine in Japan, promoting bitcoin education and adoption,” it added.
In April, the company also appointed David Bailey, chief executive of the company behind Bitcoin Magazine, to its board of strategic advisers. Bailey is also setting up his own US-listed corporate treasury vehicle called Nakamoto Holdings, which is merging with healthcare group KindlyMD.
https://www.ft.com/content/9114a31b-4d64-498a-b4fb-fbd23422dbdb
