Metaplanet Makes Bitcoin a Reserve Asset As Japan’s Debt Mountain Grows

[Yamane_Keto]

Tokyo-listed Metaplanet has adopted bitcoin (BTC) as a strategic reserve asset as a hedge against Japan's debt burden and the resulting volatility in the yen.

"Metaplanet has adopted bitcoin as its strategic 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 in the press release on Monday.
Since April, Metaplanet has acquired 117.7 BTC ($7.19 million), following the strategy pursued by U.S.-listed MicroStrategy (MSTR), which has acquired several billion dollars worth of bitcoin, per Bitcointreasuries.net. Metaplanet, an early-stage investment firm, has moved away from any involvement in Web3 and is now only focused on bitcoin alongside exposure to commercial real estate.

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/05/13/metaplanet-makes-bitcoin-a-reserve-asset-as-japans-debt-mountain-grows/

117 bitcoin is small investment, but compared to the value of the company, taking Bitcoin as a reserve is a serious step, the high debts prevented the Bank of Japan (BOJ) from raising interest rates in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed), and interest rates are low and yen value decreases has made Bitcoin a good reserve.

[un_rank]

117 bitcoin is small investment, but compared to the value of the company, taking Bitcoin as a reserve is a serious step...

If they mirror the strategy microstrategy employed when getting into bitcoin, they are off to a very good start. When you check the valuation of the company you realize that they have put in roughly 35% of their entire market cap with plans to buy more.

It is a matter of time now that more companies will start looking outside of fiat to protect their wealth and Bitcoin fits the bidding for most being digital, decentralized, secure and valuable.

- Jay -

[davis196]

I don't know anything about this Metaplanet company and I don't know should I care about this company at all.
Trying to hedge against your own country's growing government debt with BTC only seems like an impossible task. A growing government debt means that the government could sooner or later raise the taxes on all companies and citizens. Bitcoin's price volatility makes things a little bit complicated. What if the BTC price crashes, after the government raises the taxes? This means that Bitcoin doesn't work as a safe heaven asset and a hedge. The right approach would be diversifying the company's asset portfolio with different assets like gold, real estate, commodities and crypto.

[Apocollapse]

I don't know anything about this Metaplanet company and I don't know should I care about this company at all.
Trying to hedge against your own country's growing government debt with BTC only seems like an impossible task. A growing government debt means that the government could sooner or later raise the taxes on all companies and citizens. Bitcoin's price volatility makes things a little bit complicated. What if the BTC price crashes, after the government raises the taxes? This means that Bitcoin doesn't work as a safe heaven asset and a hedge. The right approach would be diversifying the company's asset portfolio with different assets like gold, real estate, commodities and crypto.

It's true tax is the best answer to collect money, but we're talking about Japan here.

and most of them are old people, [url=https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/gdp]their GDP also declining, so Japan can't maximize their earnings from collecting tax. This is why they're inviting young people to work and stay in Japan, but not many people want it due to their poor work life balance.

Bitcoin might not be the best to hedge against national debt, but they're want to use opportunity in halving event to earn (buy now and sell in the next year).

[crwth]

For a small investment firm, it's a smart move IMO to hedge against the increase in debt of the JPY. It's important to know that continuous inflation would lead to less powerful money and of course, lead to losses. It's a great move by them and I hope it stands completely.

I hope that industries will follow suit because there are still a lot of companies that are not exposed to BTC and if they manage to do it, we all know that the demand for BTC would increase hence an increase in price.

[Smartprofit]

For a small investment firm, it's a smart move IMO to hedge against the increase in debt of the JPY. It's important to know that continuous inflation would lead to less powerful money and of course, lead to losses. It's a great move by them and I hope it stands completely.

I hope that industries will follow suit because there are still a lot of companies that are not exposed to BTC and if they manage to do it, we all know that the demand for BTC would increase hence an increase in price.

The managers of this relatively small Japanese company are much smarter than government officials in many countries...
Bitcoin performs very poorly as a means of payment due to technological limitations (since it does not allow more than 300,000 transactions per day).  However, the first cryptocurrency is an ideal reserve currency.  If you use it in this capacity, then all its disadvantages turn into bold advantages. 
Bitcoin is a deflationary currency, not an inflationary one (the total number of possible coins is limited to 21,000,000).  The Bitcoin blockchain is transparent.  This may not be very convenient for individuals, but it is very convenient for banks and large corporations, as it minimizes (almost reduces to zero) the costs of auditing monetary transactions.  All this makes the first cryptocurrency an ideal reserve currency.  I think that in the near future Bitcoin will be included in the gold and foreign exchange reserves of all Central Banks. 
That's why I wrote that Metaplanet's managers are wiser and more prudent than many government officials and owners of large banks and multinational corporations.

[SamReomo]

I think they have taken a good step by investing in Bitcoin but they could have done better by following some DCA strategy. The Bitcoin might dip further and with a good DCA strategy they might get more Bitcoin for the money they have invested.

However, I believe in future they may follow some kind of dip buying or DCA strategy, so they can accumulate more Bitcoin as reserve asset. It's a good start, and I hope thing will go good for them. I hope they will also hold their reserves for long term, and continue investing more in Bitcoin overtime.

[Z-tight]

I think that in the near future Bitcoin will be included in the gold and foreign exchange reserves of all Central Banks.

No, i do not think so, for a long time now we have been talking about BTC forming part of a country's reserve currency, but there is no indication that this is going to happen. BTC is decentralized, has a limited supply and it cannot be printed by any central authority, it has features that governments do not like, and they wouldn't want to use it for anything, especially the developed or first world countries.

Bitcoin performs very poorly as a means of payment due to technological limitations (since it does not allow more than 300,000 transactions per day).

There is no daily transaction limit on the BTC network in itself, better to put it that BTC blocks are simply found ~ 10 minutes on average.

[blckhawk]

What does this one exactly mean, can someone explain it to me like I'm real stupid. How the hell would this be enough as a hedge against Japan's ever worsening debt problem? Pretty sure that this will not be enough and the people that would probably benefit from this are the people that are part of the company and their cronies in the Diet. How is this a good step for Japan as a whole? I can see it as nothing but a way for the elite to save their money, no benefits for the people.

[Betwrong]

Metaplanet Inc is up 3.33% currently:



I'm wondering was it because of their decision to adopt BTC? Anyway, it's delightful news that Metaplanet chooses Bitcoin to be an ”strategic asset for treasury reserve“. I read in one place that Metaplanet considers that Bitcoin is superior to any other currency. I think they are doing the right thing. I think more influential people should see this recent tweet by Michael Saylor:



It would help them to make the right decisions.

[peter0425]

117 bitcoin is small investment, but compared to the value of the company, taking Bitcoin as a reserve is a serious step, the high debts prevented the Bank of Japan (BOJ) from raising interest rates in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed), and interest rates are low and yen value decreases has made Bitcoin a good reserve.

For a firm that is only starting out, investing in bitcoin is an impressive and shocking move especially if we consider the risks associated with investing in bitcoin. What they did is testament to how bitcoin is being viewed currently by multiple companies.

Soon enough we shall see more and more of these companies investing on bitcoin.