Japanese Firm Metaplanet Plans $3.7 Billion Bitcoin Purchase Through Stock Offering

Japanese investment company Metaplanet has announced one of the largest corporate Bitcoin funding plans in history. All the money will go toward buying more Bitcoin for the company’s treasury.

The plan is massive in scale. Metaplanet wants to own 210,000 Bitcoin by the end of 2027. This would make it the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, even bigger than MicroStrategy, the current leader with about 597,000 Bitcoin.

Metaplanet currently owns 17,132 Bitcoin worth roughly $2 billion. The company has been buying Bitcoin aggressively since late 2024. In March 2025, it held fewer than 4,000 Bitcoin. By July, that number jumped to over 17,000 coins.

The company’s Bitcoin buying spree has paid off for investors. Metaplanet’s stock price has risen 345% this year. In June alone, trading volume hit 1.86 trillion yen ($12.65 billion), making it one of the most traded stocks on Tokyo’s main exchange. The company even surpassed famous Japanese companies like Toyota and Sony in daily trading activity.

The $3.7 billion fundraising plan uses something called perpetual preferred shares. These are different from regular company stock. They pay fixed dividends to investors, up to 6% per year, and get paid before regular shareholders if the company runs into trouble.

Metaplanet plans to create two types of these shares. Class A shares work like bonds with fixed payments. Class B shares can be converted into regular company stock later. Each type would raise up to $1.85 billion.

Source: @Metaplanet_JP

The company filed what’s called a “shelf registration” that runs from August 9, 2025, to August 8, 2027. This gives Metaplanet flexibility to sell the shares whenever market conditions look good over the next two years.

The plan isn’t final yet. Metaplanet shareholders must vote to approve it at a special meeting on September 1, 2025. The company also needs to increase its authorized shares from 1.61 billion to 2.72 billion to make room for the new preferred shares.

CEO Simon Gerovich announced the filing on social media, calling it part of the company’s “Bitcoin-first” strategy, transforming from a budget hotel operator into Japan’s most aggressive Bitcoin buyer.

Not everyone is excited about the plan. Metaplanet’s stock price dropped more than 7% when the company announced the funding proposal. The stock has fallen 33% over the past month, even though it’s still up 115% over six months.

Some investors worry about the risks of putting so much money into Bitcoin, which can be very volatile. The company’s heavy focus on Bitcoin means its success depends largely on Bitcoin’s price performance.

Critics also point to legal troubles facing MicroStrategy, the U.S. company that pioneered the corporate Bitcoin strategy. A New York law firm recently filed a lawsuit against MicroStrategy, claiming it misled investors about the risks and benefits of its Bitcoin investments.

Metaplanet’s Bitcoin strategy comes at a time when Japan faces serious economic challenges. The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio has reached 235%, which is much worse than Greece’s 142% ratio during its debt crisis. Japanese government bonds have been performing poorly, with 30-year bonds dropping 45% since 2019.

This economic backdrop may explain why Japanese investors are interested in Bitcoin as an alternative to traditional investments.

The company has set ambitious targets: 30,000 Bitcoin by the end of 2025, 100,000 Bitcoin by 2026, and 210,000 Bitcoin by 2027. To reach the final goal, Metaplanet would need to multiply its current Bitcoin holdings by 13 times in just over two years.

Whether investors approve this bold plan will depend on their confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term prospects and Metaplanet’s ability to execute such a massive acquisition strategy.

Metaplanet’s funding plan could influence other companies in Asia to consider Bitcoin for their treasuries. The company has positioned itself as “Asia’s MicroStrategy” and shown that even smaller firms can pursue aggressive Bitcoin strategies.

However, the plan also highlights the risks involved. Companies that bet heavily on Bitcoin face the same volatility that has made the cryptocurrency both attractive to some investors and concerning to others. The success or failure of Metaplanet’s strategy will likely serve as a case study for future corporate Bitcoin adoption in the region.