Bitcoin-stacking investment firm Metaplanet has purchased another 21.88 Bitcoin — worth over $1.2 million (200 million Japanese yen) — amid the recent Bitcoin rally, driving prices close to $65,000.
According to its latest July 16 purchase statement, the Japan-based firm’s Bitcoin (BTC) holdings now total 225.6 Bitcoin, valued at $14.6 million.
The recent purchase, combined with Bitcoin’s 4.4% price rise over the last 24 hours, has fueled a surge in Metaplanet share prices — up 25.8% to $0.74 (117 yen) in the opening two and a half hours on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on July 16, Google Finance data shows.
Metaplanet took advantage of Bitcoin’s price dip earlier this month, snapping up another 42.46 Bitcoin on July 7 for $2.5 million (400 million yen).
The firm’s stock price has now soared nearly six-fold since it unveiled its Bitcoin investment strategy on April 9, 2024.
However, Metaplanet is only up 2.8% on its Bitcoin holdings, given its average Bitcoin purchase price of $62,890.
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Metaplanet is currently the world’s 21st-largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, according to CoinGecko.
Metaplanet has been dubbed “Asia’s MicroStrategy” because it follows a similar playbook to Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy in 2020.
Similar to MicroStrategy — the largest corporate Bitcoin shareholder — Metaplanet iterated on May 13 that it’ll adopt an “entire range of capital market instruments” to bolster its Bitcoin reserves.
Metaplanet adopted the strategy to hedge against Japan’s worsening debt burden and the fast-depreciating Japanese yen.
The Japanese yen has fallen nearly 54% against the United States dollar since January 2021, while Bitcoin is up over 145% against the yen over the last 12 months.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $64,640 — marking a 13.6% increase over the last week.
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