Japanese firm Metaplanet buys more bitcoin, taking holdings to over $10 million

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet announced shortly after the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed on Monday that it had purchased an additional 20.195 BTC for 200 yen ($1.2 million).

This latest acquisition takes Metaplanet’s holdings to 161.2677 BTC, the firm said, equivalent to more than $10.1 million at current prices. The bitcoin were acquired for a total of 1.65 billion yen ($10.2 million) at an average purchase price of $63,427 per bitcoin.

On June 24, Metaplanet announced its board of directors agreed to purchase bitcoin worth 1 billion yen ($6.3 million) using capital raised through an upcoming bond issuance.

Monday’s announcement represents the first acquisition in that process and comes after the company purchased an additional 250 million yen worth of bitcoin in June.

Following in MicroStrategy’s footsteps

Data from Bitcointreasuries.net shows that Metaplanet previously purchased bitcoin on April 23, May 10 and June 11, following a strategy similar to that of the U.S. business intelligence firm MicroStrategy.

“The move is a direct response to sustained economic pressures in Japan, notably high government debt levels, prolonged periods of negative real interest rates, and the consequently weak yen,” the company said in May.

MicroStrategy, which began buying bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset in 2020, currently holds 226,331 BTC ($14.1 billion) — more than 1% of bitcoin’s total 21 million supply — following its most recent acquisition of 11,931 BTC for $786 million.

Metaplanet’s TSE-traded stock traded up 1% on Monday and has gained more than 233% since it started buying bitcoin, according to TradingView.

Metaplanet stock price. Image: TradingView.

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