Metaplanet crosses 20,000 BTC milestone amid financial struggles & shareholder pressure

Metaplanet Inc., Japan’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin ($BTC), has announced the acquisition of 1,009 BTC, pushing its total Bitcoin holdings to 20,000.

This latest purchase, worth nearly $112 million (16.479 billion yen), was revealed in a statement issued on Monday.

It comes at a time when the Tokyo-listed firm is also navigating a complex capital-raising effort and growing financial scrutiny.

According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.net, Metaplanet now ranks as the sixth largest public Bitcoin treasury globally and remains the top holder in Japan.

The firm reportedly paid an average of $102,607 per Bitcoin in its latest buy, netting an estimated 6.75% profit based on market prices at the time of writing.

Coinciding with the Bitcoin acquisition was Metaplanet’s confirmation that 11.5 million new shares had been issued following the exercise of warrants by Evo Fund, a key investor.

Evo Fund purchased 10 million shares at $5.67 and an additional 1.5 million shares at just under $6, totalling approximately $65.73 million. These proceeds were used, in part, to redeem $20.4 million in outstanding bonds.

Despite this progress, Metaplanet’s share price has dropped sharply, falling 54% since mid-June, even as Bitcoin has gained roughly 2% over the same period.

This steep decline has put pressure on the company’s so-called “flywheel” financing model, which relies on a rising share price to fund continued Bitcoin purchases through warrant exercises. With the stock underperforming, analysts have raised concerns about the sustainability of this approach.

The CEO of the peer-to-peer crypto platform NoOnes, Ray Youssef, noted that Metaplanet’s case reflects an inherent risk: “The moment you mix [Bitcoin] in corporate equity with elements like leverage, warrants, and financial tricks, you open up a door to fragility that Bitcoin itself doesn’t have”.

Capital raising amid investor uncertainty

As part of its broader efforts to keep its Bitcoin acquisition strategy alive, Metaplanet has unveiled a massive capital-raising plan. 

The company disclosed intentions to raise up to 130.3 billion yen ($880 million) through a public share offering overseas. Additionally, shareholders were asked to approve the issuance of up to 555 million preferred shares, which could generate as much as 555 billion yen ($3.7 billion) in new funding.

Reuters reported that three attendees of Monday’s extraordinary shareholder meeting in Tokyo’s Shibuya district confirmed the approval of this proposal. 

The greenlight gives Metaplanet the ability to issue both common and preferred shares, aimed at shoring up its capital reserves amid increasing liquidity constraints.

A former Jefferies analyst, Mark Chadwick, quoted by Bloomberg, remarked that the company’s “flywheel” financing strategy had “slowed”, making it harder for Metaplanet to purchase Bitcoin without external support. 

As a result, the firm’s holdings have grown by less than 50% since June, a stark contrast to the 160% surge in the previous two months.

Still, the company remains optimistic. During the Monday meeting, Metaplanet revealed a year-to-date Bitcoin yield of 486.7% for 2025. It also reaffirmed its goal of holding 210,000 BTC by 2027. 

However, Youssef offered a cautionary perspective: “If they fail to raise capital, they can forget about their 100,000 BTC by 2026 dream… At that point, Metaplanet becomes just another leveraged play that promised and then broke the promise”.

Metaplanet’s newly adopted mission, also announced during the meeting, aims to “pioneer a new theory of credit in Japan” by creating instruments based on “over-collateralised, absolutely scarce digital capital”.

Eric Trump, who joined Metaplanet as a strategic adviser in March, also attended the meeting and voiced strong support for the firm’s leadership. 

He praised CEO, Simon Gerovich, calling him “the one leading the front in all of Asia” and likening him to Michael Saylor, the head of Strategy, the American firm known for pioneering corporate Bitcoin treasury strategies.

From hospitality to Bitcoin: A corporate transformation

Metaplanet’s dramatic pivot into the Bitcoin space has marked one of the most striking business turnarounds in recent corporate history. Originally established in 2010 as Red Planet Japan, the company operated a chain of hotels and tech services. 

However, the pandemic dealt a heavy blow to its core business, resulting in property closures and six consecutive years of financial losses.

By early 2024, the firm’s stock languished at just $1.32 (¥190). It was then that Metaplanet began to adopt a corporate Bitcoin accumulation model, inspired by the successful playbook implemented by Strategy. Since then, the company has rapidly expanded its holdings and gained investor attention.

In Q2 2025, Metaplanet was promoted from small-cap to mid-cap status in the FTSE Japan Index. The firm also secured inclusion in the FTSE All-World Index, which recognises some of the globe’s most significant publicly traded companies by market cap.

Bitcoin remains at the heart of the company’s growth plan. Earlier this year, Metaplanet doubled its BTC year-end goal from 10,000 to 30,000. That target was surpassed within months, with the company now holding 20,000 BTC as of September. 

It recently overtook Riot Platforms in total Bitcoin holdings, putting it in sixth place among all public companies globally, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.

For comparison, Strategy currently holds 632,457 BTC and posted a 25.4% year-to-date BTC yield as of September 1. The company recently reported $14 billion in operating profit and $10 billion in net income for Q2 2025. 

Its management expects even stronger performance in the coming months, assuming Bitcoin reaches $150,000 by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Metaplanet’s percentage increase in Bitcoin per share stands at 2,274% over the past year, a figure that dwarfs Strategy’s 86% growth in the same metric. However, analysts caution that Metaplanet’s financial position is significantly more fragile.

Despite its impressive Bitcoin accumulation, Metaplanet’s stock closed at $5.65 (¥831) on Monday, a 5.46% drop for the day. It had traded in a range between $5.44 and $5.92 (¥828–¥900), according to Google Finance data.

The road ahead remains uncertain. While preferred shares and foreign investments may buy Metaplanet some time, market sentiment suggests that investors view the recent moves with skepticism. 

Youssef summed up the tension, noting that while Bitcoin as an asset is sound, “the moment you leverage it through corporate tools, you lose its strength”.

As Metaplanet pushes forward with its Bitcoin ambitions, its ability to stabilise its financing model will determine whether it remains a leader in the corporate digital asset space, or becomes a cautionary tale.