Shares in “Asia’s MicroStrategy” Metaplanet surged double-digits on Tuesday after the company disclosed another million-dollar Bitcoin purchase — its third in seven weeks.
A company statement on June 11 revealed the firm bought 23.25 Bitcoin (BTC) worth almost $1.59 million, bringing its total holdings to 141.07 Bitcoin ($9.6 million) at an average purchasing price of 10,278,391 Japanese yen ($65,365) per Bitcoin.
This puts Metaplanet at a gain of 4.5% on its Bitcoin investment at Bitcoin’s current price of $68,313, according to CoinGecko.
Investors appeared to like the move, with Metaplanet stock rallying 10.8% to 92 yen ($0.59) before cooling off to 89 yen ($0.57) by midday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on June 11, according to Google Finance.
The firm has seen its stock soar nearly fivefold since it unveiled its Bitcoin investment strategy on April 9, 2024.
Its first Bitcoin purchase was on April 23 for 97.85 Bitcoin, followed by an additional 19.87 Bitcoin on May 10, according to Bitcoin Treasuries. It is now the 30th-largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world.
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.
The firm adopted the strategy to hedge against Japan’s worsening debt burden and the quickly depreciating Japanese yen.
Japan’s debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of 261% is the worst among developed countries, Metaplanet said.
The yen has fallen almost 35% against the United States dollar since January 2021, while Bitcoin is up nearly 200% against the yen over the last 12 months.
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However, it’s still far below the Bitcoin holdings of the Michael Saylor-run firm, which holds 214,400 Bitcoin — amounting to 1.02% of the roughly 21 million Bitcoin that will ever enter into circulation.
Metaplanet is currently only available on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which restricts access to United States investors, but efforts are being made to change that.
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