Metaplanet hits 5,000 BTC milestone as corporate bitcoin accumulation race heats up

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet announced the acquisition of a further 145 BTC on Thursday, bringing its total holdings to the 5,000 BTC milestone — currently worth $460 million.

"We have reached 50% of our initial goal of 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025," Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich posted on X. "This is a big step forward in our aim to become one of the world's leading bitcoin holding companies. We will lead the global bitcoin race from Japan."

The latest acquisitions follow the issuance and sale of shares through the exercise of stock acquisition rights, bought at an average purchase price of 13,280,472 yen ($93,327) per bitcoin for a total cost of approximately 1.93 billion yen ($13.6 million).

Metaplanet's 5,000 BTC, acquired for a total cost of around $428.1 million, places it in the top ten of corporate bitcoin holders alongside Michael Saylor's Strategy , Bitcoin miner MARA , Elon Musk's Tesla and Jock Dorsey's Block , according to The Block's data dashboard .

Like those firms, Metaplanet uses a key performance indicator known as BTC Yield to assess the effectiveness of its bitcoin acquisition strategy in driving shareholder value. BTC Yield represents the percentage change period-to-period of the ratio between Metaplanet's total bitcoin holdings and its fully diluted shares outstanding. Year-to-date, the firm said it has achieved a BTC Yield of 121.1%, according to Gerovich.

Metaplanet has been actively buying the world's largest cryptocurrency since it introduced its bitcoin adoption strategy in April 2024. Beyond the company's goal of reaching 10,000 BTC this year, it has set another target of 21,000 BTC by the end of 2026.

On Monday, Metaplanet announced it had bought an additional 330 BTC ($28.2 million), bringing its total holdings to 4,855 BTC. On Tuesday, Gerovich defended the company's bitcoin treasury strategy amid share price concerns, stating, "We're just getting started."

Metaplanet's stock closed down 4.6% on Thursday at 355 yen ($2.49), according to TradingView, having dropped 31.6% over the past month. However, the stock has gained more than 1,000% during the last year.

Another new bitcoin treasury company on the horizon as institutions and sovereign wealth funds 'pile into' bitcoin

Following in the footsteps of Strategy , Semler Scientific , KULR and Metaplanet's bitcoin acquisition model, Cantor Fitzgerald, SoftBank, Bitfinex and Tether announced they are set to launch a multi-billion bitcoin venture on Wednesday.

The companies are teaming up to launch "bitcoin-native" public company Twenty One through a business combination with the SPAC Cantor Equity Partners at a $3.6 billion pro-forma enterprise value.

Twenty One will launch with over 42,000 BTC — aiming to rival Michael Saylor's Strategy by maximizing bitcoin ownership rather than fiat earnings per share.

Tether is set to contribute $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin to Twenty One, SoftBank will contribute $900 million in bitcoin, while Bitfinex plans to supply $600 million worth of the cryptocurrency, the Financial Times initially reported . Cantor Fitzgerald will also help Twenty One raise a further $385 million via convertible notes and $200 million through a private equity placement for additional bitcoin purchases.

Jack Mallers will lead Twenty One as CEO, bringing his bitcoin-first ethos as the boss of payments app Strike to the public markets, with the company planning to build bitcoin-focused financial products and media content, pitching itself as a public stock "built by Bitcoiners, for Bitcoiners."

Corporations aren't the only ones getting in on the act, according to Coinbase Institutional Head of Strategy John D’Agostino. In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, D’Agostino claimed that sovereign wealth funds were also among the pools of capital that have been buying bitcoin this month.

"Institutions, sovereigns, patient pools of capital were piling in during April, which resulted in about a 13% increase in bitcoin versus 10.5% for gold," D'Agostino said, arguing that retail participants were exiting via ETFs at the same time. "So you got to ask yourself, what do the institutions know that retail doesn't?"