The depreciation of the yen gives Metaplanet a key financial advantage, making its Bitcoin financial strategy superior to Strategy.
Against the backdrop of a generally sluggish cryptocurrency market, Japan's Metaplanet has become the fourth largest publicly traded company in the world by Bitcoin holdings.
Analysts believe that compared to its American counterparts (such as Strategy), the company possesses a core financial advantage directly related to the structural weakness of the yen as the pricing currency.
Analyst Adam Livingston points out that Japan's government debt accounts for about 250% of GDP, and to cover the massive fiscal deficit, Japan's continuous monetary expansion is constantly weakening the purchasing power of the yen.
In this macro environment, Bitcoin priced in dollars has appreciated by about 1159% since 2020, while the yen-denominated increase during the same period has been 1704%. This means that Japanese companies holding Bitcoin can directly benefit from the additional paper gains brought by exchange rate fluctuations.
This exchange rate difference allows Metaplanet's liabilities (including the coupon generated from bonds issued for acquiring Bitcoin) to be denominated and repaid in yen, but as the yen continues to depreciate against the dollar and Bitcoin, the "real cost" of the fixed yen interest it must pay each year is continuously decreasing.
In contrast, the largest publicly traded company holding Bitcoin in the U.S., Strategy, must pay bond coupons in relatively strong dollars and cannot enjoy this "debt reduction" dividend.
Comparing the debt costs of the two, it is found that Metaplanet pays a 4.9% coupon in yen, and its actual burden continues to lighten with the yen's depreciation; meanwhile, Strategy pays a 10% coupon in dollars, and its debt value shrinks much slower than the former.
However, this financial strategy advantage based on currency weakness has not completely translated into recognition from the capital markets. Metaplanet's stock price trends remain highly synchronized with other Bitcoin-holding publicly traded companies like Strategy and BitMine, all experiencing significant declines recently.
This may indicate that at this stage, investors are more concerned about the overall risk exposure of the cryptocurrency market itself, and have not fully considered Metaplanet's unique "yen liability hedge" characteristic.
Overall, against the backdrop of global macroeconomic differentiation, companies in different fiat currency zones may face vastly different financial costs and potential return structures when investing in similar cryptocurrency assets.
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