- Metaplanet posted a ¥95 billion annual loss as its 35,100 Bitcoin, bought for about $3.8 billion, shows a 37% unrealized decline
- The company’s options premium revenue climbed to ¥7.9 billion and it is using common stock and new preferred shares like MERCURY and MARS to fund its Bitcoin strategy
Metaplanet’s aggressive push into Bitcoin is now weighing heavily on its finances as the cryptocurrency trades far below the prices at which the company accumulated most of its holdings. The Tokyo-listed firm, which shifted from hotel management into a Bitcoin-focused strategy, has reported a steep annual loss and substantial unrealized losses on its digital asset position, even as its options business shows strong growth.
Metaplanet’s earnings hit by Bitcoin slump
On Monday, Metaplanet reported a full-year net loss of ¥95 billion, equivalent to $605 million, on annual revenue of ¥8.9 billion, or $58 million, according to its latest earnings presentation. The company attributed the weak performance mainly to the falling value of its Bitcoin holdings, which have been central to its treasury approach over the past 21 months.
Metaplanet currently holds 35,100 Bitcoin, valued at $2.4 billion as of Monday. Since it started buying the asset, the firm has spent nearly $3.8 billion in total, paying an average of $107,000 per coin. With Bitcoin now trading below those entry levels, the company is sitting on an unrealized loss of about $1.4 billion, a paper decline of roughly 37%.
The impact was especially acute in the final quarter of the year. For the three months ending Dec. 31, Metaplanet said that the market value of its Bitcoin position fell by ¥102 billion, or $664 million. The firm has not disclosed any new Bitcoin purchases so far this year, underscoring how the recent downturn has put pressure on its balance sheet and strategy.
Metaplanet stock performance and revenue mix
Despite the sizeable loss, Metaplanet’s share price edged higher on Monday, closing at ¥326, according to data from Yahoo Finance. Over a longer horizon, however, the stock has struggled. Over the last six months, its shares have declined more than 62%, a slide that roughly parallels a 65% drop in the share price of Strategy, the U.S. software and Bitcoin treasury firm that Metaplanet has sought to emulate.
Beyond its Bitcoin exposure, Metaplanet generates income primarily from writing options and collecting premiums. This segment has expanded rapidly. Full-year revenue from premiums increased to ¥7.9 billion, or $51 million, up from ¥691 million, or $4.5 million, the previous year. The company has forecast an 81% rise in full-year operating profit linked to this options business, suggesting that, at least operationally, the firm expects stronger performance even as market volatility affects its digital asset holdings.
The contrasting trends between the growing options revenue and the shrinking value of its Bitcoin reserve highlight the dual nature of Metaplanet’s current model. On one hand, the company is building a trading and derivatives income stream; on the other, its balance sheet remains heavily exposed to swings in the Bitcoin market, which can quickly outweigh operating gains.
Metaplanet’s Bitcoin accumulation strategy and funding tools
Metaplanet began reshaping itself in the image of Michael Saylor’s Strategy months before President Donald Trump’s re-election triggered a broader wave of corporate Bitcoin treasury initiatives. Although Metaplanet had an early start relative to many competitors in this niche, its most significant purchases occurred when Bitcoin traded above $100,000, locking in a high cost basis.
In September, Metaplanet indicated that it had expanded its holdings by 25% through a $630 million Bitcoin purchase executed when the cryptocurrency was around $106,000. The firm followed that with another large acquisition in October, disclosing a $615 million buy at a time when Bitcoin hovered around $108,000. These two transactions alone added more than $1.2 billion to its exposure at elevated prices, compounding the scale of its current unrealized losses.
To finance these purchases, Metaplanet has relied heavily on issuing common stock, using equity sales to raise cash for Bitcoin acquisitions. It has also adopted funding methods similar to Strategy’s by turning to preferred shares as an additional capital source. The company has so far launched two preferred share products, named MERCURY and MARS, which form part of its broader effort to build what it calls “digital credit.”
Metaplanet described MERCURY as the first asset of its type to be issued in Japan. According to the company, MERCURY is designed to help it manage downturns in the crypto market by providing an alternative capital-raising channel beyond standard equity. Management said the issuance established a platform for sustainable growth that is less sensitive to market conditions, signaling a desire to stabilize funding even when Bitcoin prices fall.
Both MERCURY and MARS require the company to make dividend payments to investors. As doubts emerged last year over whether Strategy could maintain dividend payments on its own preferred products, that firm created a dedicated cash reserve to effectively pre-fund those obligations. Metaplanet’s preferred structures follow a comparable model in terms of ongoing dividend commitments, adding another layer of fixed financial obligations on top of its volatile asset base.
Market perceptions and parallels with Strategy
Metaplanet’s trajectory is closely watched because of its parallels with Strategy, which pioneered the large-scale use of Bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset. The recent drop in both companies’ share prices suggests that equity markets are questioning the resilience of this leveraged Bitcoin treasury approach in a weakening crypto environment.
Investor sentiment on the broader strategy of using Bitcoin as a core balance sheet asset can be seen in activity on Myriad, a prediction market owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan. Traders there have assigned a 22% probability that Strategy will sell some of its Bitcoin holdings this year to raise additional funds. Over recent months, those implied odds have fluctuated, reaching as high as 35%. While these probabilities relate directly to Strategy, they also reflect broader market speculation around whether heavily exposed firms like Metaplanet may eventually be forced to adjust their positions if price pressure persists.
Metaplanet’s attempt to develop “digital credit” through instruments such as MERCURY and MARS shows how the company is trying to diversify its capital sources while still keeping Bitcoin at the core of its corporate identity. However, the combination of substantial unrealized losses, dividend-bearing preferred shares, and a stock price that has dropped more than 62% in six months indicates that investors remain wary about how sustainable this model will be if Bitcoin fails to recover toward the levels at which the company accumulated much of its position.
Conclusion
Metaplanet’s latest financial results underline the risks of an aggressive Bitcoin treasury strategy executed near record price levels. The firm has built a sizeable digital asset position of 35,100 coins, financed through common equity and novel preferred share structures, yet now faces a 37% unrealized loss and a ¥95 billion annual deficit. While its options-writing business is growing and projected to lift operating profit, the company’s fortunes remain tightly linked to Bitcoin’s trajectory. As markets reassess corporate balance sheets tied to the cryptocurrency, Metaplanet stands as a key example of both the potential upside and the significant downside baked into this approach.
Disclaimer
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