Bitcoin adoption pushed Metaplanet into Japan’s top 50, CEO says

Metaplanet’s move to a Bitcoin standard in April 2024 has propelled its stock into Japan’s top 50 by trading volume, CEO Simon Gerovich says.

Japanese firm Metaplanet saw its market cap jump 7,000% after adopting the Bitcoin (BTC) Standard in April 2024.

Metaplanet chief executive Simon Gerovich noted in an X post on Feb. 4 that the Tokyo-listed firm is now ranked “among the top 50 in terms of trading volume” among the approximately 4,000 listed companies in Japan. He also noted that “high liquidity” the company is currently facing represents a “sign of investor interest and also leads to more efficient fundraising.”

In another X post, Gerovich noted that Metaplanet’s daily trading volume is now up 4,600 times on year-over-year bases, with January’s monthly volume “exceeding $2 billion.”

Building on this momentum, Metaplanet plans to buy 21,000 BTC by 2026. To fund this, they’re issuing 21 million shares to raise about $745 million, marking Asia’s largest equity capital raise for Bitcoin, crypto.news reported earlier. Following the announcements, the company’s shares rose 5.6% in pre-market trading.

In 2024, Metaplanet had a big year. It hit a record BTC Yield of 309.82% in Q4. By year-end, the firm had 1,761 Bitcoin, worth over ¥27.7 billion (around $178 million). As crypto.news reported earlier, following the acceptance of the Bitcoin plan, the number of Metaplanet’s shareholders jumped to more than 50,000.