Bitcoin Magazine

Metaplanet is Building a Two-Tier Rocket Ship to Buy More Bitcoin

Metaplanet has introduced a new two-tier preferred equity structure designed to deepen its bitcoin-centric financing model, launching a senior Class A instrument called MARS and a new perpetual Class B preferred share, MERCURY, that is expected to raise roughly $150 million. 

The move positions the Tokyo-listed firm as the latest major bitcoin treasury company to adopt a perpetual preferred structure, following Strategy and Strive.

MARS — short for Metaplanet Adjustable Rate Security — becomes the top layer of the company’s capital stack. The senior preferred shares are non-dilutive, offer no conversion rights, and feature monthly dividends that adjust based on where the share trades relative to par. 

According to Head of Strategy Dylan LeClair, the design aims to give Metaplanet a volatility-smoothing income instrument while preserving common shareholders from dilution. MARS sits senior to both MERCURY and common equity.

JUST IN: Metaplanet to raise $150 million via perpetual preferred equity to buy more #Bitcoin

Nothing stops this train pic.twitter.com/fMn7wC2TRl

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) November 20, 2025

Metaplanet: Raise money, buy bitcoin

The second layer of the structure, MERCURY, forms the backbone of Metaplanet’s new capital raise. The company plans to issue 23.61 million Class B perpetual preferred shares at ¥900 each, generating ¥21.25 billion (approximately $150 million) through a third-party allotment to institutional investors. 

The preferred stock pays a 4.9% annual fixed dividend on a ¥1,000 notional strike, with quarterly distributions and an initial payout of ¥40.40 for the period ending Dec. 31, 2025. The shares carry a ¥1,000 liquidation preference and a long-dated optional conversion into common equity — a hybrid profile that blends fixed income with asymmetric upside tied to bitcoin.

The offering comes as Metaplanet’s common equity has fallen more than 80% from its all-time high and now trades around ¥387, pushing its market-to-NAV ratio below parity to 0.96. Investors currently value the company at less than the bitcoin it holds — a dynamic management believes the new structure can help correct by separating long-term capital providers from short-term equity flows.

“MERCURY sits junior to MARS, senior to common, offering a hybrid profile: fixed income + asymmetric upside tied to BTC,” LeClair posted on X.

Metaplanet, now the world’s fourth-largest corporate holder of bitcoin with 30,823 BTC, plans to allocate roughly ¥15 billion of the new capital toward additional bitcoin purchases, with the remainder directed to income-generating bitcoin strategies and the redemption of outstanding corporate bonds. 

Executives have emphasized that downturns are strategic buying opportunities, and that consistent bitcoin accumulation remains fundamental to its treasury model.

To support the overhaul, the company will convene an extraordinary general meeting on Dec. 22 to approve reductions to capital stock and capital reserves, expand authorized shares to 3.83 billion, and clear legacy financing overhangs. 

Metaplanet is cancelling multiple series of prior stock acquisition rights and issuing new rights to EVO FUND to streamline its structure ahead of the preferred rollout.

Metaplanet was once a Japanese firm rooted in hotel management, real estate, and Web3 initiatives, and has rapidly reinvented itself as a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company. Its core mission is now to maximize Bitcoin held per share, tapping equity and debt markets to raise capital that is then converted into BTC. 

The company frames Bitcoin accumulation as both an inflation hedge and a long-term value engine for shareholders, making its treasury strategy the center of its corporate identity.

On October 1, Metaplanet (TSE: 3350, OTC: MTPLF) reinforced its transformation into Asia’s “Bitcoin rocketship” by acquiring 5,268 BTC for about $615.7 million, bringing its total holdings to 30,823 BTC at an average cost of $107,912 per coin.

This makes it the fourth-largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury globally, exceeding its FY2025 goal of 30,000 BTC and achieving a 497% year-to-date BTC yield. Q3 2025 revenue surged 115.7% to ¥2.438 billion, prompting a doubling of FY2025 revenue guidance to ¥6.8 billion.

This post Metaplanet is Building a Two-Tier Rocket Ship to Buy More Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Seattle is looking to celebrate and accelerate its leadership in artificial intelligence at the very moment the first wave of the AI economy is crashing down on the region’s tech workforce.

That contrast was hard to miss Monday evening at the opening reception for Seattle AI Week 2025 at Pier 70. On stage, panels offered a healthy dose of optimism about building the AI future. In the crowd, buzz about Amazon’s impending layoffs brought the reality of the moment back to earth.

A region that rose with Microsoft and then Amazon is now dealing with the consequences of Big Tech’s AI-era restructuring. Companies that hired by the thousands are now thinning their ranks in the name of efficiency and focus — a dose of corporate realism for the local tech economy.

The double-edged nature of this shift is not lost on Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson.

“AI, and the future of AI, and what that means for our state and the world — each day I do this job, the more that moves up in my mind in terms of the challenges and the opportunities we have,” Ferguson told the AI Week crowd. He touted Washington’s concentration of AI jobs, saying his goal is to maximize the benefits of AI while minimizing its downsides.

Seattle AI Week, led by the Washington Technology Industry Association, was started last year after a Forbes list of the nation’s top 50 AI startups included none from Seattle, said the WTIA’s Nick Ellingson, opening this year’s event. That didn’t seem right. Was it a messaging problem?

“A bunch of us got together and said, let’s talk about all the cool things happening around AI in Seattle, and let’s expand the tent beyond just tech things that are happening,” Ellingson explained.

So maybe that’s the best measuring stick: how many startups will this latest shakeout spark, and how can the Seattle region’s startup and tech leaders make it happen? Can the region become less dependent on the whims of the Microsoft and Amazon C-suites in the process? 

“Washington has so much opportunity. It’s one of the few capitals of AI in the world,” said WTIA’s Arry Yu in her opening remarks. “People talk about China, people talk about Silicon Valley — there are a few contenders, but really, it’s here in Seattle. … The future is built on data, on powerful technology, but also on community. That’s what makes this place different.”

And yet, “AI is a sleepy scene in Seattle, where people work at their companies, but there’s very little activity and cross-pollinating outside of this,” said Nathan Lambert, senior research scientist with the Allen Institute for AI, during the opening panel discussion.

No, we don’t want to become San Francisco or Silicon Valley, Lambert added. But that doesn’t mean the region can’t cherry-pick some of the ingredients that put Bay Area tech on top.

Whether laid-off tech workers will start their own companies is a common question after layoffs like this. In the Seattle region at least, that outcome has been more fantasy than reality. 

This is where AI could change things, if not with the fabled one-person unicorn then with a bigger wave of new companies born of this employment downturn. Who knows, maybe one will even land on that elusive Forbes AI 50 list. (Hey, a region can dream!)

But as the new AI reality unfolds in the regional workforce, maybe the best question to ask is whether Seattle’s next big thing can come from its own backyard again.

Related: Ferguson’s AI balancing act: Washington governor wants to harness innovation while minimizing harms