Japan’s Metaplanet rolls up bitcoin put options for additional revenue
2024-10-16

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet Inc. has rolled up its bitcoin put options previously disclosed on Oct. 3, adjusting the strike price to $66,000 from $62,000 as the firm remains optimistic about the outlook of the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
An options roll-up is a strategy in which an investor closes an existing options position and simultaneously opens a new position in the same option at a higher strike price. It’s essentially a way to increase the strike price of an option position. 
Metaplanet announced on Wednesday that the transaction was intended to replace the existing Bitcoin put options with new options at an updated strike price while maintaining the same maturity date of Dec. 27.
“This boosts our nominal yield on option sales and generated an additional JPY 57.9 million in premium, bringing total premium earnings to JPY 272.5 million, to be booked as revenue this year,” Simon Gerovich, CEO of Metaplanet, wrote in an X post.
The Tokyo-listed firm noted that the margin collateral remained unchanged at around $13.8 million, sourced from the proceeds of its stock acquisition rights exercise. 
Precisely, Metaplanet executed the transaction that involved repurchasing 223 bitcoin put options with a strike price of $62,000 and simultaneously selling the same number of put options at a higher strike price of $66,000. “This adjustment enables the company to increase the nominal yield by 2.65% to a total of 13.40%,” the firm said, adding that it earned 5.9 BTC in aggregate premium.
“By increasing the strike price, this approach allows for a higher yield potential while keeping in line with the company's objectives to enhance bitcoin holdings and support its path toward profitability,” the firm added.
Metaplanet has been on a bitcoin buying spree in recent months after announcing in May that it had started to adopt bitcoin as its strategic treasury reserve asset. On Tuesday, it disclosed that it purchased an additional 106.976 bitcoin worth about 1 billion yen ($6.7 million), raising its total holdings to 855.478 BTC, or about $57.4 million at current market prices.
Bitcoin climbed 2.57% over the past 24 hours to trade at $67,097 at the time of writing, according to The Block’s price page.
Metaplanet’s stock traded 6.88% higher so far on Wednesday in Japan, currently changing hands at around 1,181 yen, according to Google Finance. The stock is still trading in the afternoon session. The Nikkei 225 index was down 1.77% so far today.
Meanwhile, Michael Saylor-led MicroStrategy remains the largest corporate bitcoin holder, owning 252,220 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries data. Marathon Digital follows this record with 26,842 BTC.
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