In brief
- Metaplanet has taken out a $130 million loan to buy more Bitcoin.
- This move comes following Bitcoin’s recent dive, down 30% since setting a new high in early October.
- Metaplanet’s stock is up, but a number of digital asset treasuries are suffering.
Japanese Bitcoin treasury Metaplanet’s stock is up just as the Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed firm doubled down Tuesday on its BTC-stockpiling master plan.
Metaplanet was trading more than 2% higher after announcing that it would use its Bitcoin holdings as collateral to secure a $130 million loan to buy even more of the asset. Year-to-date, Metaplanet shares have risen by nearly 5%, according to Yahoo Finance data.
“Funds allocated to the Bitcoin Income Generation business will be used as collateral for selling Bitcoin options to earn premium income,” the company said in a Tuesday filing.
The firm—which has been dubbed “Asia’s MicroStrategy” by some investors and is one of the world’s biggest crypto treasuries—pivoted from its core hotel and technology business to start buying Bitcoin in 2024. It now holds 30,823 BTC worth about $2.7 billion at today’s BTC price. It aims to acquire 210,000 Bitcoin, or 1% of the overall supply, by 2027.
The loan comes at a time when crypto prices have taken a hit and digital asset treasuries are on wobbly footing: A plunge this quarter in digital asset prices has highlighted concerns among skeptics of the treasury strategy pioneered by Strategy—formerly MicroStrategy—in 2020.
The amount of digital asset treasuries surged this year as companies wanting to copy Strategy bought Bitcoin and other digital coins and tokens as a way to boost their stock prices.
Bitcoin’s price crashed last week, and is now sitting 30% below its October record of $126,080, according to CoinGecko. It recently stood at nearly $87,516, down 1% over a 24-hour period.
Myriad users are feeling optimistic again with Bitcoin rebounding from a recent low of about $81,000 last week. Users of the prediction market—which is owned by Decrypt‘s parent company, Dastan—give Bitcoin a 67% chance of next rising to a price of $100,000 rather than falling to $69,000.
Strategy, which allows shareholders to gain exposure to Bitcoin without the risks involved in holding it directly, is the largest corporate holder of the digital coin, with 649,870 BTC worth about $57 billion at today’s prices.
But the firm’s stock (MSTR) is down significantly this year—by 41%—leading some analysts to raise concerns that it could be excluded from certain equity indices next year.
Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said last week that the firm’s “conviction in Bitcoin is unwavering” amid speculation over potential delistings, and that it continues to buy and hold BTC—though it notably did not announce its usual weekly purchase on Monday.
Metaplanet is pushing ahead, too, and looking for new ways to raise capital to buy more Bitcoin. Just last week, it announced plans to issue a product that would pay investors dividends as an additional funding mechanism.
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