Metaplanet Deepens Bitcoin Strategy With $25M Investment Plan, New Venture Arm

Metaplanet is moving to broaden its Bitcoin strategy beyond simply accumulating the crypto, unveiling a new venture arm and investment initiative aimed at supporting Japan’s emerging Bitcoin infrastructure ecosystem.

The Tokyo-listed firm said on Thursday its board has approved the creation of Metaplanet Ventures and Metaplanet Asset Management, alongside plans to deploy roughly $25 million (¥4 billion) over the next two to three years into companies building Bitcoin financial infrastructure across lending, payments, custody, derivatives, and compliance technologies.

Planned initiatives include venture investments in early- and growth-stage companies, an incubator for Japanese founders, and grants for open-source Bitcoin developers and educators, according to a company filing.

“Japan has built the best regulatory framework in the world for digital assets,” CEO Simon Gerovich wrote on X.  “Now it needs the companies, the builders, and the infrastructure to match.”

Musheer Ahmed, founder and managing director of Finstep Asia, told Decrypt the investment is “relatively small” for Japan’s scale but said it could help “drive more local blockchain startups” to build products and services for the Bitcoin ecosystem beyond basic mining and payments infrastructure.

The expansion is a strategic pivot for a firm grappling with financial strain tied to Bitcoin’s volatility.

Metaplanet currently holds 35,102 BTC worth approximately $2.4 billion, at Bitcoin’s current price of $69,540, down 4% over the past seBusven days, according to CoinGecko data. 

Last month, the firm disclosed a full-year loss of $605 million (¥95 billion) on $58 million (¥8.9 billion) in revenue, driven largely by a $664 million (¥102 billion) decline in the value of its Bitcoin stash in the final quarter alone. 

The company has spent nearly $3.8 billion accumulating Bitcoin at an average of $107,000 per coin, meaning it is currently sitting on an unrealized loss of around $1.4 billion, or roughly 37% underwater on its holdings. 

Its stock fell 3.25% Thursday to $2.20 (¥357), extending a six-month decline of more than 62%, according to Google Finance data.

Ahmed said that “with reliance on Bitcoin for both asset revenue and now also for services-related revenue, Metaplanet is overly dependent on Bitcoin as the single asset class,” noting how venture and asset management businesses could help diversify revenue streams not fully dependent on Bitcoin prices.

Venture investments could help spur the development of “Bitcoin blockchain-based services/products that integrate with TradFi,” which would, in turn, drive greater network usage and potentially boost Bitcoin’s value, Ahmed added.

For its first investment, Metaplanet Ventures signed a letter of intent to invest up to $2.6 million (¥400 million) in JPYC Inc.—Japan’s FSA-registered yen stablecoin issuer backed primarily by Japanese government bonds, as part of its Series B round, with the deal expected to close in April pending due diligence and final agreements.

Metaplanet is also launching Metaplanet Asset Management, a Miami-based platform designed to connect Asian and Western capital markets across digital asset credit, yield, and derivatives strategies.

Ahmed said Metaplanet’s “scale and positioning” could give it an advantage over U.S.-based firms, noting that the company “understands the Asian market well and likely has a strong, highly valued network in the crypto space.”