In April 2024, Simon Gerovich, CEO of Metaplanet, announced something that in any other context would have looked like madness: his company, which ran two hotels in Tokyo, was going to adopt Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.
Metaplanet held 117 BTC at the time. It was a small company, practically unknown outside Japan, with a market cap of less than $10 million. No one expected that in twelve months it would become Asia's largest corporate treasury and the most extraordinary example of Bitcoin accumulation the business world had seen.
Metaplanet's strategy has a structural advantage that sets it apart from Strategy: the Japanese macro environment. In Japan, interest rates have been in negative or near-zero territory for decades. The Bank of Japan has maintained extreme quantitative easing for years. For a Japanese company, issuing yen bonds to buy Bitcoin is almost free in terms of cost of capital.
While Strategy pays 0–1% on its convertibles and 8–11.5% on its preferreds, Metaplanet issues yen bonds with coupons of 0.5–2% a year. If Bitcoin appreciates 30% in a year, the difference is overwhelming.
The result of this rate arbitrage is the 310% BTC Yield Metaplanet posted in 2024. Each quarter, the company announced a new round of bonds, new Bitcoin purchases, and a higher BTC per share. Japanese investors, used to practically zero returns on their bank deposits, responded with enthusiasm.
Metaplanet's stock (3350.T on the Tokyo Stock Exchange) rose more than 800% in twelve months, becoming one of the best-performing stocks in the Japanese market. Investment funds worldwide that couldn't buy Bitcoin directly bought Metaplanet as a proxy.
The model is being replicated in other Asian countries. In South Korea, several companies have announced similar strategies. In Singapore, institutional funds are studying the Metaplanet case as a template. The idea that each country's MicroStrategy can be a local company with access to local-currency financing is catching on.
What Metaplanet has shown is that the Saylor model is not American. It is universal.
If you want to see the two head to head — Bitcoin reserve, mNAV and capital structure — there's the Strategy (MSTR) vs Metaplanet comparison.
