Proving it would sell its Bitcoin cost Metaplanet about ¥11.57 billion

Per coin, Metaplanet sold at about ¥12.47 million and bought back at about ¥13.63 million ^[14][15]. The round trip took a net ¥25.2 billion out of the company. Roughly ¥13.63 billion of that bought 1,000 extra coins, and the other ¥11.57 billion bought back coins it had just sold ^[16]. CryptoSlate, which reported the figures, gives the ¥11.57 billion before transaction costs and potential tax effects ^[3]. Its account does not say how the net ¥25.2 billion was funded.

The sale was aimed at prospective lenders. Metaplanet's June accounts showed ¥75.49 billion of short-term borrowings and bonds due within a year against ¥1.34 billion of cash, deposits and USDC. That is about 56 yen owed for each yen on hand ^[17]. Those figures leave out the Bitcoin and the financing the company could raise ^[6]. According to CryptoSlate's account of the Oct. 5 disclosure, creditors needed confidence that management would actually use the holdings to meet obligations ^[4].

Strategy handles the same lender question by holding dollars. Its dedicated reserve is earmarked for preferred dividends and debt interest, and any other use needs board authorization ^[9]. Holders of roughly $5.91 billion of notes can ask Strategy to repay them in 2027 and 2028 if they exercise their rights ^[7]. The separate cash covers about 14% of that ^[19]. Running that structure has a cash cost. In the week from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, Strategy drew $142.5 million from the reserve for dividends and interest and spent $154.1 million buying back preferred shares, while buying $13 million of Bitcoin ^[10]. Its financing outflows ran about 23 times its coin purchases ^[20]. Bitcoin still dominates the balance sheet: 848,000 coins bought for about $63.97 billion ^[11].

How the ¥11.57 billion looks depends on what it bought. Treated as a timing cost, it came from a buyback price 9.3% above the sale price ^[1]. Had the market fallen between the two trades, the same demonstration would have produced a gain. Treated as the fee for a rating, it has to come back through cheaper borrowing. The premium is about 15% of the June near-term obligations. On debt of that size, a two-point cut in the interest rate (an illustrative figure) would take more than seven years to recover it ^[18]. And if lenders decide that a single sale proves less than a standing dollar reserve, the fee buys little and Metaplanet still has to build up cash.

We think it was a fee, and a steep one, or rather steep against the balance sheet Metaplanet had in June ^[17]. The counter-case is that a rating opens borrowing far larger than ¥75.49 billion, in line with the company's stated aim of improving the financing behind continued accumulation ^[12]. Spread over a bigger debt base, the same premium is a smaller share. Our view is wrong if Metaplanet's first rated debt is priced low enough, on enough principal, that the interest saved over its term exceeds ¥11.57 billion ^[3].