Metaplanet Expands Bitcoin Hoard With $15.2M Buy As Shares Implode 32% In A Month

Japan-based Bitcoin treasury firm Metaplanet added $15.2 million worth of BTC to its holdings on Thursday, even as its shares plunged 3%, extending a month-long slide of almost 32%.

The latest purchase is part of Metaplanet’s aggressive plan to grow its Bitcoin stockpile toward 210,000 coins by 2027, supported by a potential $3.7 billion capital raise.

But investors remain wary, with analysts citing profit-taking, potential share issuances, and market uncertainty as reasons the stock remains under pressure.

Metaplanet share price (Source: Google Finance)

Metplanet Clears Path To Raise $3.7 Billion 

According to the company’s CEO Simon Gerovich, his firm bought an additional 136 BTC at an average purchase price of $111,666 per coin earlier today.

The latest buy has pushed Metaplanet’s holdings to 20,136 BTC, valued at approximately $2.08 billion, he said. These coins were bought at a mean price of around $103,196 per BTC.

Metaplanet is currently the largest corporate Bitcoin holder in Asia, and is ranked at number six globally in terms of the amount of BTC held on its balance sheet, data from Bitcoin Treasuries shows. 

The recent buy now places the company less than 4,000 BTC away from surpassing crypto mining firm Riot Platforms as the fifth-biggest corporate Bitcoin holder globally. 

The company could keep climbing the corporate Bitcoin rankings, especially with Metaplanet’s goal to acquire 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027.

As part of that objective, the company’s backers have cleared a path for Metaplanet to raise another $3.7 billion to grow its BTC reserves. 

That’s after an extraordinary general meeting last week in which the company’s investors backed amendments to Metaplanet’s articles of incorporation. One of the amendments included expanding Metaplanet’s authorized shares to 2.7 billion.

Metplanet’s board of directors then approved the amendments as well, but the company will still have to authorize the specific issuance terms. Metaplanet will also have to file detailed registration statements to local regulators before it can proceed with the plan. 

While Metaplanet’s investors and board of directors have agreed to expand the company’s authorized shares, there remains one major obstacle that could make raising the capital difficult. 

Treasury Company NAVs Slide Even After BTC Reached A New ATH

A report from York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) has also highlighted that premiums of digital asset treasury firms are falling, and predicted that these woes are likely to continue.

NYDIG global head of research Greg Cipolaro said in a report that the gap between stock price and net asset values (NAV) of major BTC treasury companies such as Metaplanet and Strategy “continue to compress” even after the largest crypto by market cap soared to a new all-time high (ATH).

Not only has Metaplanet’s share price been in a downtrend in the past month, the same trend is observed for leading Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy). 

The Michaal Saylor-led firm has seen its stock price plummet 15% during the same period. However, it did rise more than 2% on Sept. 5 to close off the week in the green. 

Cipolaro said there is no main reason for that increasing gap, adding that factors such as “investor anxiety over forthcoming supply shocks, changing corporate objectives from DAT management teams, tangible increase in share issuances, investor profit-taking, and limited differentiations across treasury strategies” could all be behind the growing gap.

The analyst also noted that many treasury companies, including KindlyMD and Twenty One Capital, are currently trading at or below the value of recent fundraises. 

That’s after Bitcoin soared to a new ATH at $124,457.12 on Aug. 14. It has since pulled back around 10% to trade at $110,955.47 as of 1:38 a.m. EST, according to data from CoinMarketCap. 

The NYDIG analyst warned in the report that the crypto treasury firms might need to brace for a “bumpy rise ahead,” as many investors wait for mergers or financing deals to go public. This could lead to a “substantial wave of selling” from existing shareholders, according to the report.