Japanese Firm Metaplanet Boosts Bitcoin Holdings to $40 Million, Following MicroStrategy's Strategy

A Japanese investment firm has made headlines by increasing its Bitcoin holdings. Metaplanet, a publicly traded company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, announced that it bought 108.786 Bitcoin for 1 billion yen, which is about $6.7 million. This brings its total to 639.5 Bitcoin, now valued at over $40 million.

Metaplanet has drawn comparisons to MicroStrategy, the American company known for its Bitcoin treasury strategy. Back in April, Metaplanet adopted a similar approach by investing 1 billion yen in Bitcoin. They stated that this strategy is about more than just digital assets; it’s about blending finance with innovation.

While Metaplanet is often called Asia’s answer to MicroStrategy, its Bitcoin holdings are still much smaller. MicroStrategy currently holds 252,200 Bitcoin, worth around $15.9 billion.

As for Bitcoin’s price, it recently jumped by 16.77%, hitting $63,655.26. MicroStrategy, based in Tyson, Virginia, started buying Bitcoin in 2020 to maximize returns for its shareholders instead of keeping excess cash. This strategy has paid off, as the company’s stock has surged. They’ve even rebranded themselves as a “Bitcoin development company.” By using debt to buy Bitcoin, they allow investors to gain exposure to cryptocurrency through shares of the company. Co-founder Michael Saylor encourages other companies to consider this approach.

In other news, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, recently boosted the profile of a meme coin inspired by Moo Deng, a viral baby pygmy hippo. He sold billions of Ethereum-based tokens for charity, causing the asset's price to soar, although it’s still less known than the Moo Deng coin on Solana. Buterin shared on Twitter that he swapped a significant amount of this meme coin to support “anti-airborne-disease tech.”

Meanwhile, EigenLayer is dealing with the fallout from unauthorized selling linked to a wallet that offloaded about $5.5 million worth of its EIGEN token. They described this incident as isolated, resulting from a compromised email thread involving one investor’s token transfer.

Bitcoin’s price approached $64,000 during early European trading but faced some resistance. Analysts suggest that BTC investors are waiting to see the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election. As of now, Bitcoin’s price has settled around $62,800, reflecting a 1.5% increase for the day. Ethereum has followed a similar path, rising 1.3% to about $2,450.