Japanese Bitcoin treasury firm Metaplanet has added to its growing reserve of Bitcoin, purchasing 1,088 BTC at a price of approximately $117.3 million.
According to a notice published today, the company now holds 8,888 BTC at an average purchase price of $93,354, giving it a return of 10.6% on today’s Bitcoin price.
Metaplanet also revealed that in the past 12 months it has achieved a yield of 225% on its BTC-purchasing strategy, which it calculates as a ratio of its total Bitcoin holdings to its total outstanding shares.
Such a yield has been helped by Metaplanet’s rising share price, which now stands at ¥1,171, representing an almost 200% increase in the past month alone.
Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Metaplanet is Japan’s first and only company dedicated to managing a Bitcoin reserve, a strategy which has given it a market cap of $3.82 billion and made it the 3,217th most valuable firm globally.
As eToro analyst Simon Peters explains, “Drawing inspiration from Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), since Metaplanet adopted its bitcoin treasury strategy in April last year its share price is up over 5000% and could very well keep going if we see an increasing Bitcoin price going forward too.”
As with Strategy, Metaplanet has funded its Bitcoin acquisitions via a combination of stock and bond sales, with the firm most recently marking its 16th and 17th issuance of ordinary bonds on May 28 and May 29, worth a total of $71 million.
On May 20, it announced that it had raised $651.8 million over 60 days, via its 13th through to 17th offering of shares.
Its latest purchase of Bitcoin comes at a time when more companies are looking to invest in the cryptocurrency, partly or largely as a means of boosting their respective share prices.
“Overall, we are seeing more publicly listed companies adopt Bitcoin treasury strategies, notably GameStop last week announcing their first Bitcoin purchase,” says Peters, speaking to Decrypt.
Peters also notes that publicly listed companies now hold almost 4% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply, or 800,000 BTC, whereas this time last year they held 300,000 BTC.
He adds, “I feel we are entering a new era with bitcoin, one where the main buyers will be entities such as private and publicly listed companies and pension funds (via the bitcoin spot ETFs) rather than individuals.”
Other analysts also expect a growth in publicly listed companies turning to crypto, with TradeNation’s David Morrison telling Decrypt that they won’t focus exclusively on Bitcoin either.
“I expect more companies to turn to Bitcoin, and, given the proposed GENIUS Act in the US, stablecoins too,” he says. “It should be of particular appeal to former meme companies, with widespread investor recognition, such as GameStop.”
Both analysts highlight various reasons – financial, regulatory and political – as to why Bitcoin accumulation is likely to grow among listed firms.
“With government debts increasing world-wide, there is growing concern about new buying or holding Treasuries or other government bonds that were once deemed ‘risk-free’ and these entities are looking to alternative assets such as bitcoin to protect themselves from these risks,” explains Peters.
For Morrison, there’s also the fact that, in many nations, holding BTC directly is still not viable for institutional investors, something which can make publicly listed accumulators attractive.
“In the UK, the regulatory environment is fairly hostile to cryptos,” he says. “But investors can bypass difficulties in owning Bitcoin directly, doing it by proxy instead.”
This institutional and corporate move towards Bitcoin is likely to be hugely beneficial for the cryptocurrency’s price, while experts also affirm that it will, on the whole, be beneficial to retail investors
“For the retail investor it will become more difficult to become a ‘whole-coiner’, as the price per bitcoin increases over time with more and more capital flowing in from entities to buy Bitcoin,” says Peters, who nonetheless adds that retail can still own fractions of Bitcoins and see their holdings increase over time.
David Morrison also agrees that corporate accumulation of Bitcoin will be positive for retail investors, who will be encouraged by the resulting legitimization of the sector.
“It’s also very useful for UK investors who can put such holdings in an ISA and thereby avoid the taxes which will eventually emerge should regulators allow the market to open up,” he explains. “Wider adoption should help to reduce volatility, thereby making crypto of interest to a wider audience, although a drop in volatility may see a significant proportion of existing users look for alternatives.”
Edited by Stacy Elliott.