Metaplanet’s Bitcoin strategy faces fundraising crunch as stock sinks: Report

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Metaplanet, the Tokyo-listed steadfast aggressively accumulating Bitcoin, is facing mounting unit arsenic its stock terms tumbles, threatening the fundraising exemplary it has utilized to physique 1 of the largest firm Bitcoin treasuries globally.

The company’s banal has dropped 54% since mid-June, contempt Bitcoin (BTC) gaining astir 2% during the aforesaid period. The diminution has enactment its capital-raising “flywheel” nether stress, a mechanics babelike connected rising stock prices to unlock backing done MS warrants issued to Evo Fund, its cardinal investor.

With shares down sharply, exercising these warrants is nary longer charismatic for Evo, squeezing Metaplanet’s liquidity and slowing its Bitcoin acquisition strategy, according to a Sunday study by Bloomberg.

Led by erstwhile Goldman Sachs trader Simon Gerovich, Metaplanet presently holds 18,991 BTC, making it the seventh-largest nationalist holder, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET. The steadfast has ambitions to turn its stack to 100,000 BTC by the extremity of 2026, and 210,000 BTC by 2027.

Metaplanet turns to overseas markets

With its “flywheel” strategy losing momentum, Gerovich is turning to alternate fundraising. On Wednesday, Metaplanet announced plans to raise astir 130.3 cardinal yen ($880 million) done a nationalist stock offering successful overseas markets.

Additionally, shareholders volition ballot connected Monday connected whether to o.k. the issuance of up to 555 cardinal preferred shares, a uncommon instrumentality successful Japan, which could rise arsenic overmuch arsenic 555 cardinal yen ($3.7 billion).

In an interrogation with Bloomberg, Gerovich called the preferred shares a “defensive mechanism,” allowing superior infusion without diluting communal shareholders if the banal falls further. These shares, expected to connection up to 6% yearly dividends and initially capped astatine 25% of the firm’s Bitcoin holdings, whitethorn entreaty to Japanese investors starved of yield.

Falling Bitcoin premium puts Metaplanet’s strategy astatine risk

However, analysts are cautious. “The Bitcoin premium is what volition find the occurrence of the full strategy,” said Eric Benoit of Natixis. That premium, the quality betwixt Metaplanet’s marketplace headdress and the worth of its Bitcoin holdings, has fallen from implicit 8x successful June to conscionable 2x, expanding the hazard of dilution.

The institution has suspended Evo’s warrant exercises from Sept. 3 to 30, paving the mode for the preferred banal issuance. Whether this displacement tin stabilize Metaplanet’s backing strategy remains to beryllium seen.

Meanwhile, Metaplanet has been upgraded from a small-cap to a mid-cap banal successful FTSE Russell’s September 2025 Semi-Annual Review, earning inclusion successful the FTSE Japan Index. The determination follows the company’s beardown Q2 performance.

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