Japanese Bitcoin Stock Metaplanet Tops Tokyo Stock Exchange

Cryptocurrency Metaplanet, known on Twitter as “Japan’s MicroStrategy,” has outperformed any other company on the Japanese stock market since the beginning of this week.

Over the past two days, Metaplanet's stock price has risen 50%, from Monday's closing price of 41 yen to 90 yen as of Wednesday. This is the second consecutive trading session of Metaplanet, enforced by the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), to reach a daily high.

Following in the footsteps of MicroStrategy (MSTR), the world's largest Bitcoin holder, Metaplanet's new main corporate goal is to accumulate as much Bitcoin as possible.

“We believe this is the most valuable thing we can do for our shareholders,” Dylan LeClair, director of Bitcoin strategy at Metaplanet, told Decrypt. “We will consider various options to acquire additional Bitcoin, including any opportunities that exist in the capital markets that we see as increasing.”

One of those opportunities, announced Monday, involves increasing the number of shares outstanding by 300%, a strategy MicroStrategy has already used multiple times. The company can raise capital through the new stock sale and accumulate more bitcoin, turning Metaplanet into a makeshift bitcoin ETF for Japanese investors, with no fees.

“Given the asset's absolute scarcity, we plan to continue purchasing Bitcoin regardless of short-term exchange rate fluctuations. This stands in stark contrast to the reality of a permanently depreciating polity,” Leclair added.

Bitcoin has risen 193% against the yen over the past year and hit a new all-time high against the fast-falling currency on Monday.

Like MicroStrategy in August 2020, Metaplanet's shares quickly soared after it announced its Bitcoin treasury strategy last month, with its market cap rising from 2 billion yen (about $13 million) in early April to 14.63 billion yen (about $93.4 million) today.

“As with Bitcoin, the best strategy for Metaplanet is [to] Just buy,” Mark Yusko, CEO and CIO of Morgan Creek Capital, tweeted on Wednesday. Yusko He is a member of Metaplanet's board of directors.

Metaplanet is currently only available on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and access to US investors is blocked. However, Arnab Naskar, the co-founder of STOKR, who recently helped tokenize MSTR stock on the Liquid network, has recently expressed interest in doing the same with Metaplanet, which will allow crypto users around the world to access may be expanded.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.