Metaplanet, an investment firm based in Japan, has experienced a remarkable surge in its shares, following a strategy inspired by MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin approach. Over the past week, the company’s shares have skyrocketed by 158%, making it the top gainer among Japanese stocks.
Currently priced at 93 Japanese yen, Metaplanet’s share price has risen by 127% in just two days. This surge in value has prompted the Tokyo Stock Exchange to activate a circuit breaker trading halt on multiple occasions in the past week. Furthermore, the firm is on the verge of breaching a market cap of $1 billion, equivalent to 14.8 billion Japanese yen at current prices.
According to the rules set by the Tokyo Stock Exchange, stocks listed with a share price below 100 Japanese yen are subject to a maximum daily increase of 30 Japanese yen. However, Metaplanet has breached this limit for two consecutive days.
Dylan LeClair, the Director of Bitcoin Strategy at Metaplanet, highlighted the company’s recent performance, emphasizing that it has been the best-performing stock in Japan for two consecutive days.
Since announcing its Bitcoin investment strategy on April 8, the firm has accumulated 117.7 Bitcoin, which is currently valued at $7.2 million. As a result, its stock has risen by an impressive 389%.
Similar to MicroStrategy, Metaplanet has stated that it will utilize a wide range of capital market instruments to strategically enhance its Bitcoin reserves, according to a statement released on May 13.
The company’s decision to invest in Bitcoin is driven by a desire to hedge against Japan’s increasing debt burden and the rapid depreciation of the Japanese yen. Metaplanet believes that this move is a direct response to the persistent economic pressures in Japan, such as high government debt levels, prolonged periods of negative real interest rates, and a weak yen.
Metaplanet pointed out that Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio of 261% is the highest among developed countries. Additionally, the Japanese yen has depreciated by over 34% against the United States dollar since the beginning of 2021. In contrast, Bitcoin has experienced a nearly 190% increase against the Japanese yen in the past year.
It is worth noting that Metaplanet is currently only available for trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, limiting access for U.S. investors. However, Arnab Naskar, one of the founders of the security token platform STOKR, has expressed an intention to tokenize Metaplanet shares on the Bitcoin layer-2 network Liquid, similar to how MicroStrategy stock was tokenized.
Overall, Metaplanet’s adoption of a Bitcoin investment strategy has proven to be highly successful, resulting in significant gains for the company and positioning it as a leader in the Japanese stock market.