u.today
Michael Saylor, executive chairman of MicroStrategy, has lauded the extraordinary performance of Japanese public company Metaplanet.
"Welcome to the Bitcoin standard," Saylor wrote in a post on social media.
This comes after Metaplanet made it to the top 30 publicly listed Japanese companies by trading volume, surpassing such major players as Itochu and NTT.
The former operator of budget hotels managed to emerge from complete obscurity by heavily betting on Bitcoin in a MicroStrategy-style pivot.
After initially announcing its Bitcoin strategy in April, Metaplanet quickly surged on the list of the top corporate holders of the leading cryptocurrency.
Following its recent purchases, Metaplanet's current BTC holdings stand at $93 million, and it recently announced a new debt-for-Bitcoin offering. It is on track to surpass Bitcoin mining equipment manufacturer Canaan and Norwegian industrial giant Aker ASA in the near future.
800-pound gorilla
MicroStrategy is, of course, the 800-pound gorilla setting the Bitcoin standard. The company's Bitcoin coffers have become so big that it is head and shoulders above other corporate Bitcoin buyers.
The total value of its Bitcoin holdings has now surpassed $30 billion after the company announced its record-breaking $4.6 billion purchase on Monday. MicroStrategy has also announced a debt offer worth $1.75 billion to buy even more Bitcoin.
Eric Conner, the founder of EthHub, has opined that Bitcoin has now become centralized, with a single point of failure around Saylor.
Meanwhile, hedge fund manager Mark Spiegel recently warned that Saylor could see the fate of the Hunt brothers (whose audacious attempt to corner the silver market ended in bankruptcy).