u.today
Japanese public company Metaplanet has announced its decision to issue ¥1 billion ($6.2 million) in 0.5% bonds in order to purchase more Bitcoin.
With its recent move, it has taken a page out of MicroStrategy's debt-for-Bitcoin playbook. As reported by U.Today, the Virginia-based company announced a gargantuan $768 million Bitcoin purchase that was financed with the help of its latest convertible note offering.
Metaplanet, which has already been dubbed "Asia's MicroStrategy", added the flagship cryptocurrency to its balance sheet in April.
Before pivoting to Web3 consulting, it was known as a struggling operator of low-budget hotels. The shares of the publicly listed company surged after it made the largest cryptocurrency its primary reserve asset.
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Earlier this month, Metaplanet announced that it had acquired another $1.6 million worth of Bitcoin, increasing its holdings to 141.07 Bitcoins.
Reducing yen exposure
The adoption of Bitcoin was meant to reduce the company's dependence on the Japanese yen, which recently plunged to the weakest level against the U.S. dollar since 1990.
In March, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) implemented the first rate hike in 17 years, ending a long streak of negative interest rates. However, it ruled out aggressive monetary policy tightening.
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After the stock market bubble burst in Japan in the early 1990s, the country entered a long period of ultralow interest rates, economic stagnation, and even deflation. While Japan remains the fourth-biggest economy in the world with a high level of prosperity and safety, it has significantly fallen behind other G7 countries. Wages and prices have remained pretty much the same over the last three decades while Tokyo is nowhere near the world's most expensive cities despite routinely topping such lists in the past.