Bitcoin's Rise as Digital Gold Gains Corporate Momentum

Metaplanet has completed a $1.45 billion international share offering on Sept. 10, marking a significant step in its strategy to expand its Bitcoin holdings and integrate the cryptocurrency into its corporate treasury. The Tokyo-listed company priced the offering at ¥553 per share ($3.73), issuing 385 million shares to raise ¥212.9 billion ($1.45 billion) in total. After accounting for underwriting and other costs, the company will receive net proceeds of approximately ¥204.1 billion ($1.39 billion), with ¥183.7 billion ($1.25 billion) earmarked for Bitcoin purchases and an additional ¥20.4 billion ($139 million) designated for income-generating operations.

This move comes after a shareholder vote in early September, which approved the issuance of up to 550 million new shares and preferred stock, reflecting the company’s strategy to stabilize its capital structure amid a 54% decline in its share price since mid-June. The share sale is one of the largest corporate treasury shifts in Japan and highlights a growing trend of institutional adoption of Bitcoin, particularly in regions outside the U.S. The company has stated that the rationale for its Bitcoin investments is tied to global macroeconomic conditions, including high levels of national debt, prolonged negative interest rates, and the depreciation of the yen.

Following its latest Bitcoin acquisition of 136 BTC this week, Metaplanet now holds a total of 20,136 BTC, valued at approximately $2.25 billion. This positions it as the sixth-largest public corporate holder of Bitcoin globally, placing it behind firms such as Strategy, Marathon, and Twenty One, but ahead of Tesla, Coinbase, and the Trump Media & Technology Group. The scale of the company’s holdings and its commitment to further accumulation has drawn attention from analysts, who view the move as a signal of broader corporate adoption of Bitcoin.

Dan Dadybayo, research and strategy lead at Unstoppable Wallet, noted that Metaplanet’s actions reflect a shift from experimental treasury strategies to a more mainstream integration of Bitcoin in corporate balance sheets. He added that with the introduction of new accounting standards and the growing normalization of Bitcoin ETFs, he expects public companies to collectively hold over 1 million BTC by year-end. Looking ahead, Dadybayo anticipates that more firms may begin to treat Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, akin to digital gold.

The trend is supported by the rapid rise of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which has become the firm’s most profitable ETF, surpassing even its flagship S&P 500 product in fee revenue. With assets under management surpassing $80 billion in just over a year, IBIT has demonstrated strong institutional and retail demand for Bitcoin exposure, further reinforcing the trajectory toward broader acceptance in traditional finance.