Metaplanet expanded its bitcoin treasury again in the first quarter of 2026, adding 5,075 BTC and bringing total holdings to 40,177 BTC. The Tokyo-listed company said the purchases were completed by March 31, with cumulative acquisition costs reaching approximately $3.92 billion. The latest buying campaign reinforces Metaplanet’s status as Japan’s largest corporate bitcoin holder and pushes it further up the global rankings of public companies holding bitcoin on balance sheet.
Q1 buying adds nearly $398 million in bitcoin
According to the company’s disclosure, Metaplanet spent roughly $398 million during the quarter to acquire the additional 5,075 BTC. The weighted average purchase price for those coins was reported in the range of about $78,000 to $79,898 per bitcoin. The pace of accumulation shows that the company remains committed to its treasury strategy even in a market environment where bitcoin was trading below its average acquisition level at the time of announcement.
On April 2, 2026, the day the update was disclosed, bitcoin was trading near $66,400. At that market price, Metaplanet’s 40,177 BTC carried an estimated value of around $2.67 billion. Relative to the company’s average cost basis of approximately $97,593 per BTC, that implied an unrealized mark-to-market loss of about 32%. Even so, the company has not signaled any retreat from its buying strategy.
Long-term reserve thesis remains intact
CEO Simon Gerovich has repeatedly framed bitcoin as a long-term reserve asset rather than a short-term trading position. The company’s thesis is rooted in Japan’s macro backdrop, especially concerns around inflation and yen weakness. Since pivoting toward a bitcoin-focused treasury strategy in April 2024, Metaplanet has maintained a steady pattern of accumulation from quarter to quarter, suggesting management is prioritizing long-duration exposure over short-term price fluctuations.
That approach has made Metaplanet one of the most closely watched corporate bitcoin accumulators outside the United States. Rather than treating unrealized losses as a signal to slow down, the company continues to emphasize the strategic role of bitcoin in treasury preservation and future value creation.
Funding model combines equity raises and bitcoin income operations
Metaplanet finances its bitcoin purchases through a combination of equity issuance, debt management, and bitcoin-related income generation. A notable part of the model involves options trading against its existing holdings. In Q1 2026, the company said that this income business generated approximately 2.97 billion yen in revenue.
After offsetting some acquisition costs with that income, Metaplanet calculated a net purchase price of roughly 11,955,713 yen per bitcoin. The company noted that this figure was broadly in line with the quarter’s volume-weighted average bitcoin price on the Bitflyer exchange. The structure is important to management’s broader treasury model: income from options activity helps reduce the effective cost of newly acquired bitcoin, while a larger bitcoin base can support additional future income operations.
Two capital raises supported the quarter’s expansion
Metaplanet also tapped capital markets twice during the quarter. On Jan. 29, the board approved a combined issuance of 24,529,000 shares and warrants to overseas institutional investors at 499 yen per share, raising approximately 12.24 billion yen. Later, on March 16, the company issued an additional 107,368,000 shares at 380 yen per share. That second raise closed on March 31 and generated about 40.8 billion yen in proceeds.
Both financings were directed primarily toward bitcoin acquisition. The disclosure also highlights one of the trade-offs in Metaplanet’s strategy: scaling a bitcoin treasury quickly often requires significant share issuance, which can dilute existing shareholders even as total bitcoin holdings increase.
Now ranked third among public companies by bitcoin holdings
The latest purchase moved Metaplanet into third place globally among publicly traded companies by bitcoin held. It now trails only Strategy, with 762,099 BTC, and Twenty One Capital, with 43,514 BTC. The company also overtook MARA Holdings, which held approximately 38,689 BTC after selling part of its reserves to help manage debt.
This ranking shift is significant because it places Metaplanet among a small group of companies aggressively using public-market financing and operating cash strategies to build institutional bitcoin reserves. Its ascent from a relatively small operating company to one of the world’s largest public bitcoin holders has been unusually fast.
BTC Yield slows as dilution increases
Metaplanet reported a BTC Yield of 2.8% for Q1 2026. The company uses this internal metric to track growth in bitcoin per diluted share. While still positive, the figure was far below the 95.6% reported in Q1 2025. The main reason is that share issuance during the latest quarter was much heavier, reducing the rate at which bitcoin accumulation translated into per-share growth.
For investors, this metric offers another lens for evaluating the treasury strategy. Total holdings may be rising rapidly, but the benefit to each diluted share can expand more slowly if capital raises become more frequent or larger in scale.
From small operator to major bitcoin treasury player
Metaplanet began accumulating bitcoin in April 2024 while still known primarily as a small hotel and technology operator. It started with just 97.85 BTC, reached 1,761 BTC by December 2024, and then accelerated sharply through 2025. By September 2025, its holdings had climbed to 30,823 BTC. The first-quarter 2026 purchase pushed that total to 40,177 BTC.
The company’s long-term target is ambitious: 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027, or roughly 1% of bitcoin’s fixed supply. Reaching that threshold would likely require continued access to capital markets, ongoing income generation from bitcoin-related operations, and sustained management conviction through multiple market cycles. Based on the current trajectory, the goal remains possible only if the company keeps executing at a high pace over the next several quarters.
Shares slipped with the broader market
Metaplanet shares closed at about 302 yen on April 2, equivalent to roughly $1.89, down around 2% intraday. The decline appeared broadly in line with wider market movement rather than a company-specific reaction to the treasury update. In other words, the announcement did not trigger an outsized equity repricing, even though it marked another major expansion of the company’s bitcoin position.
Beyond treasury accumulation, Metaplanet has also tried to build a retail shareholder narrative around bitcoin. The company offers bitcoin-linked perks, including periodic BTC giveaways and a planned card rewards program targeting 1.6% cashback in bitcoin. Management, particularly Gerovich, has used social media to promote the broader argument that bitcoin can serve as a hedge against fiat debasement.
For now, the central story remains straightforward: Metaplanet is continuing to scale its bitcoin treasury despite volatility, unrealized losses, and dilution trade-offs. With 40,177 BTC now on the balance sheet and a stated goal of 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027, the company is making one of the boldest corporate bitcoin bets in the public market.