Metaplanet stopped buying Bitcoin for months, concealing a ruthless arbitrage strategy that puts retail to shame

Over the past quarter, the most notable market signal from Japan-based Metaplanet was not a single Bitcoin purchase, but a pause.

The Tokyo-listed firm, which spent much of 2025 aggressively acquiring Bitcoin, has not issued a “Notice of Additional Purchase” since Oct. 1.

While retail observers feared a loss of conviction, the silence masked a critical financial dislocation that had seen Metaplanet’s Market Net Asset Value (MNAV) briefly dip below 1.0.

For a corporate treasury vehicle, an MNAV below 1.0 signals a fundamental inefficiency. It means the company’s stock is trading at a discount to the raw value of the Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

When this inversion occurs, buying Bitcoin on the open market becomes mathematically inferior to buying back one’s own discounted shares.

Considering this, the firm's management recognized this arbitrage window immediately. So, they ceased direct accumulation to re-engineer their capital stack, pivoting from simple buying to aggressive leverage and equity management.

The leverage pivot

Since the MNAV dislocation, the firm has executed a massive liquidity overhaul. Metaplanet secured a $100 million loan collateralized by some of its existing 30,893 Bitcoin holdings, explicitly earmarked to double down on accumulation during market pullbacks.

Simultaneously, it introduced a $500 million credit line dedicated to a share-buyback program, which fundamentally alters the company's defense mechanics.

When MNAV drops below parity, every share Metaplanet retires effectively increases the Bitcoin-per-share ratio for remaining investors more efficiently than a raw Bitcoin purchase would.

This is the hallmark of a mature financial operator rather than a passive holding company.

By pairing this defense with a $100 million Bitcoin-backed loan, Metaplanet is layering risk to amplify returns. Borrowing against the stack to buy more of the underlying asset is the classic “looping” strategy used by aggressive crypto-native funds, but rarely seen in Japanese corporate governance.

It indicates that CEO Simon Gerovich is willing to tolerate higher volatility in exchange for maximizing the treasury’s size before the next supply shock.

The strategy suggests that the October-to-December pause was a period of rigorous balance sheet restructuring. Management needed to unlock the liquidity trapped in their cold wallets to fund the next leg of growth.

With the credit facilities now in place, the company has effectively armed itself to buy both its own stock and Bitcoin on any given trading day, depending on where the deepest value lies.

The EGM mandate

The structural foundation for this new aggression was cemented on Dec. 22.

Speaking following an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders, Gerovich confirmed that investors approved all five management proposals. The resolutions provide the legal and mechanical rails necessary to execute the company’s complex new roadmap.

The first proposal was the most consequential for immediate capital allocation. Shareholders authorized the transfer of capital stock and reserves into “other capital surplus.”

In plain English, this accounting maneuver frees up distributable capital, allowing the company to pay dividends on preferred shares and creates the capacity for the treasury stock acquisitions needed to close the MNAV discount.

The second proposal increased the authorized share count for Class A and Class B preferred shares from 277.5 million to 555 million for each class.

This massive increase in headroom creates a “shelf” that allows Metaplanet to raise capital rapidly without needing to convene future shareholder meetings. It effectively gives management a blank check to scale the balance sheet as fast as institutional demand allows.

The remaining proposals re-architected the preferred shares themselves. The Class A shares, now dubbed “MARS” (Metaplanet Adjustable Rate Security), shifted to a monthly variable-rate dividend.

This design aims to stabilize the instrument's price, making it more attractive to conservative income investors.

Meanwhile, Class B shares were retooled to pay quarterly dividends and, significantly, now include a call provision exercisable by the issuer at 130% after 10 years.

They also grant investors a put option if an IPO does not occur within one year. This clause hints strongly at potential future listing ambitions or liquidity events, possibly in US markets.

Meanwhile, perhaps the most potent catalyst for the Metaplanet's future arrived not from Tokyo, but from Oslo. Norges Bank Investment Management, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with $2 trillion in assets, had disclosed unanimous support for all five of Metaplanet’s proposals.

For a sovereign wealth fund of this magnitude to affirmatively vote in favor of a capital restructuring explicitly designed to facilitate Bitcoin accumulation is a watershed moment for the asset class.

It signals that institutional allocators are beginning to view Bitcoin treasury strategies not as “shadow banking” anomalies, but as legitimate corporate governance structures.

The road to 100,000 BTC

With the governance approvals secured and the credit lines open, the “pause” is effectively over. The restructuring has cleared the path for Metaplanet to pursue its stated “North Star” goal of a treasury of 100,000 BTC.

The combination of the EGM mandate and the Norges Bank endorsement provides the fuel. The $100 million loan and the $500 million buyback facility give the engine.

Metaplanet has transitioned from a company that buys Bitcoin with cash flow to a financial engineer that uses every tool in the corporate finance manual, including buybacks, asset-backed lending, and structured preferred equity, to maximize its exposure.

Essentially, the market should expect the filing cadence to resume at a higher intensity. However, the nature of the filings will likely change. We will likely see a dynamic mix of share repurchases when the MNAV discount widens, and aggressive spot Bitcoin purchases when the premium returns.

The silence of the last three months was not hesitation. It was the sound of a company reloading.

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