Japan’s Metaplanet makes $7M Bitcoin buy, bringing holdings to $40.5M
2024-10-07

Japanese investment company Metaplanet has made another Bitcoin purchase, bringing its stash to nearly 640 Bitcoin and sending its stock surging over 10%. 
On Oct. 7, Metaplanet announced its latest Bitcoin purchase as the Tokyo-listed firm scooped up another 108.78 Bitcoin BTCUSD, worth roughly $6.92 million at its current price of around $63,600.
Metaplanet, which has been dubbed “Asia’s MicroStrategy” after the American BTC buying firm, has been aggressively buying BTC and has amassed more than 215 BTC over the week following a 107.91 BTC purchase on Oct. 1. 
Its holdings now total 639.5 BTC worth around $40.5 million, according to its latest notice on Oct. 7.
Metaplanet’s share price surged more than 11% during trading on Oct. 7 to hit an intraday high of 1,047 Japanese yen — worth around $7 — according to Google Finance. 
Metaplanet began adopting Bitcoin as its strategic treasury reserve asset in May 2024. Since then its stock price has more than tripled and has gained over 532% since the beginning of this year. 
Last week, on Oct. 3, the firm employed a strategy involving the sale of put options, earning an additional 23.97 BTC worth around $1.46 million at the time. 
Metaplanet sold 223 Bitcoin put options contracts with a $62,000 strike price, maturing on Dec. 27, 2024. 
Bitcoin put options are crypto derivatives contracts that give the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell at a predetermined price, the strike price, on or before a specific date.
Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich said at the time that this strategy provides a way to increase its Bitcoin reserves without adding financial risk. He added that the firm aims to generate yields through options strategies on a portion of its assets.
In early September, Gerovich announced a partnership with SBI Holdings’ crypto division to enhance its crypto trading, storage, and management capabilities. Strategic Business Innovator Group is one of the largest integrated finance groups in Japan. 