Metaplanet's 44,000 Bitcoin Bet Just Got a New 15% Rule

Metaplanet owns 44,000 Bitcoin (BTC). Yet the stock market values the Tokyo company at less than those coins. On Monday, it rewrote its own rulebook, allowing up to 15% of its assets to go somewhere other than Bitcoin.

Since April 2024, Metaplanet has raised investor money and spent it on Bitcoin. Now only about 85% to 90% of its assets will stay in the coin.

Where Metaplanet’s Other 15% Is Going

Chief Executive Simon Gerovich says buying Bitcoin was never the whole plan.

“From the beginning, our strategy was never simply to accumulate Bitcoin,” he wrote.

The new slice has three jobs, according to the company’s filing. It will:

• Fund takeovers
• Buy income-paying securities, and
• Seed a planned investment business.

In August, Metaplanet agreed to hand 2,100 BTC and $2.5 million to Super League Enterprise, a Nasdaq-listed media company. Metaplanet expects to control it, pending approvals, and rename it Superplanet.

The third job, a Net Interest Income Strategy, raises money and invests it in assets paying more than that money costs. Profits would buy more Bitcoin, though the filing warns results are not guaranteed.

Why Metaplanet Cannot Easily Sell New Shares

Metaplanet’s rules ban most new share sales while the company is worth less than its Bitcoin. Counting its debt, the market valued it at 74 cents per dollar of Bitcoin on Monday, according to BitcoinTreasuries.

At the current Bitcoin price of about $86,070, its coins are worth roughly $3.8 billion. Its shares are worth about $2.1 billion.

Growth money now leans on loans, bonds, and preferred shares, which pay investors a fixed dividend. Borrowing on its Bitcoin-backed credit facility to buy Bitcoin stays below about 10% of the coins’ value.

In the third quarter, Metaplanet sold more Bitcoin than its entire debt and held the cash. It then bought back more than it sold, netting 1,000 BTC.

“Rating agencies and credit investors ask one question of a Bitcoin company: can that Bitcoin be turned into cash to meet obligations, and will it be? We answered by doing it,” Gerovich added.

It now wants a credit rating. However, the Tokyo exchange could still reject its plan to list preferred shares.