Metaplanet's Capital Raise Bumps President Simon Gerovich Off Panel with Eric Trump

But Metaplanet’s aggressive financing and Bitcoin purchasing strategy is moving too fast for its marketing efforts. 

The latest initiative to raise capital of 130.3 billion yen, or about $880 million, from overseas investors will involve a new shares issuance, starting with 180 million of common stock, rising to up to 550 million. That will be discussed at a shareholder meeting on 1 Sept, three days after company president Simon Gerovich was supposed to appear on a conference panel at Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong with Eric Trump. 

However, the company is now in a quiet period following the capital raising announcement on 27 Aug so executives cannot fully engage in the event.

Tokyo reunion

Trump and Gerovich will instead reunite in Japan for the shareholder meeting, with Eric, son of US President Donald, attending in his role as a strategic advisor to Metaplanet.

Metaplanet has the biggest Bitcoin treasury outside the US and it ranks number seven overall. It has 18,888 BTC against an ambition of holding 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027. That's dwarfed by the biggest BTC treasury – Michael Saylor's firm Strategy’s which owns 629,376 bitcoins.

Almost $840 million of the capital raised will be allocated to increase Bitcoin purchases during September and October, reinforcing the hotelier-turned-crypto stockpiler’s efforts to amass 1% of the 21 million global supply of the coin. The Japanese firm has already spent more than $2 billion, after starting its Bitcoin income generation strategy in 2024.

Primary revenue engine

Bitcoin has become the company’s primary revenue engine and will remain the core driver of earnings going forward, according to a second-quarter 2025 earnings presentation. Bitcoin income accounted for more than 91% of second-quarter revenue in 2025 with the longer standing hotel and media businesses contributing the rest.

Shareholders attending the extraordinary general meeting on 1 Sept will presumably hear once again the fundamental case for the firm’s crypto strategy, outlined in a 27 Aug regulatory filing.

“The company believes that the current global economy is undergoing a structural shift—from a traditional supply structure centered on capital and labor to a new economic foundation based on information technology,” Metaplanet said in the filing. “In addition, the post-war monetary system is reaching a major turning point due to factors such as rising geopolitical risks, shifts in trade policy, and mounting concerns over cumulative debt. In this environment, the price of government bonds—long considered a safe asset—are declining (i.e., interest rates are rising), while gold has been re-evaluated as a hedge against inflation and currency risk.”

That scenario has paved the way for Metaplanet’s view that Bitcoin is of strategic significance due to three reasons:

• Scarcity – issuance is capped at 21 million coins;
• Convenience – swift and low-cost storage or transfer without border or physical constraints; and
• Transparency and Reliability – transactions not requiring third-party trust.

Hotel origins

Metaplanet was originally a hotel management company. Gerovich, a former Goldman Sachs derivatives trader, became CEO in May 2024 and the company then pivoted to its Bitcoin strategy.

Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for more than 20 years, Metaplanet still owns a hotel, the Royal Oak Gotanda in central Tokyo, which is scheduled to become “the Bitcoin Hotel”, a crypto social and education hub, in early 2026.

Investors do not currently receive a dividend, just the satisfaction that an increase in the price of BTC mean an increase in their holding. However, Metaplanet has said it plans to issue a new class of preferred shares backed by Bitcoin, which will offer dividends of up to 6%.

Bitcoin yield 

Metaplanet uses Bitcoin Yield as a Key Performance Indicator. This tracks how much Bitcoin the company holds per fully diluted share and how that ratio changes over time. 

It is not to be confused with yield in the traditional sense, which may refer to the cash flow, or an investment return, generated from an asset. Instead, it is a metric based on accumulating more Bitcoin relative to shares outstanding, making it a growth efficiency metric.  

Metaplanet has achieved BTC Yield of 468% year-to-date, according to its second-quarter earnings presentation, outstripping its published target of 232% yield for the year. 

(Bitcoin Asia 2025 closing panel: as originally scheduled)

Trump crypto empire

Eric Trump, who seems to be keeping his 29 Aug closing slot commitment at the Bitcoin Asia conference, is involved with a number of crypto-focused companies beyond Metaplanet. An Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, he is also connected to:

• World Liberty Financial, a stablecoin issuer;
• Trump Media and Technology Group, which is building its own Bitcoin stockpile as well as a Cronos treasury in partnership with Crypto.com; and
• American Bitcoin, a Bitcoin miner, which is reportedly seeking acquisitions in Asia

Metaplanet’s shares climbed 5.7% on Wednesday and are up 7.7% so far this week, compared with a 0.5% decline in Japan’s Nikkei 225 equities index.