Japanese firm Metaplanet Inc. to buy bitcoin worth $6.3 million through bond issuance

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet Inc. saw its stock price jump over 12% on Monday morning after announcing that its board of directors has agreed to purchase bitcoin worth 1 billion yen ($6.26 million) using the capital raised through an upcoming round of bond issuance.

In a statement released Monday, the Tokyo-listed company said that it plans to purchase additional bitcoin by issuing the second series of ordinary bonds with guarantees.

The bonds, totaling 1 billion, are set to come with an annual interest rate of 0.5%, and will mature on June 25, 2025, according to a separate announcement. The payment date for the bonds is June 26, 2024. “The funds raised will be used to purchase Bitcoin,”  the company said.

Metaplanet’s stock surged about 12.2% in the morning session, according to Google Finance.

Metaplanet’s latest move to issue bonds for bitcoin purchase comes after the company purchased an additional 250 million yen worth of bitcoin earlier this month. The firm said on June 11 that it held about 141.07 BTC. Data from Bitcointreasuries.net showed that Metaplanet previously purchased bitcoin on April 23, May 10 and June 11.

In May, the company announced that it started to adopt bitcoin as its strategic treasury reserve asset. “The move is a direct response to sustained economic pressures in Japan, notably high government debt levels, prolonged periods of negative real interest rates, and the consequently weak yen,” the company said at the time.