Japanese strategy Metaplanet posted a $750 million loss in the first quarter and will delay its long-awaited preferred shares, which are intended to boost Bitcoin purchases.
Like Michael Saylor’s plea for a bimonthly dividend for Stretch [STRC] To boost BTC accumulation, Metaplanet explored a similar option.
It proposed issuing Mars and Mercury preferred shares last November to address constant share dilution and fund Bitcoin [BTC] buys.
These unique offerings come with variable dividends and allow a company to raise capital without directly selling or diluting its Class A shares. Plus, it’s faster, and Michael Saylor has preferred it to convertible debt in the past.
What’s delaying the rollout in Japan?
However, according to the company’s CEO Simon Gerovich, current Japanese regulations have made it difficult to bring the products to market. He noted that Japanese companies pay returns only once or twice a year.
Therefore, their proposed dividend-paying preference shares will need to be reworked and they will need to be more widely involved.
Moreover, Gerovich said regulators require that return-paying companies have sustainable cash flows from underlying activities. Still, he hoped to bring the products to market.
We are working closely with our partners to build and modernize this infrastructure in a manner consistent with Japanese regulations and market practices. The process has taken longer than we initially expected, and we recognize that this has created uncertainty.
Will Metaplanet Catch Up to Strategy?
To put what’s at stake into perspective, imagine the STRC of Strategy. It earns a variable interest rate of 11.5%. To date, more than $8.5 billion has been spent on STRC, most of which has been used for BTC purchases.
Strategy now owns over 818,000 BTC, with +146,000 BTC acquired in 2026 alone, mainly through STRC.
Metaplanet is still targeting 100K BTC in 2026. But it has resorted to quarterly BTC purchases due to restrictions and uncertainty over its preferred shares.
At the time of writing, it held 40,117 BTC, but it was unclear whether it would be able to buy up the 60,000 BTC shortfall by December.
Separately the company reported a net loss of ¥114.5 billion (about $725 million) in the first quarter, largely due to the fair value of its BTC holdings during the crypto crisis in early 2026.
In the first quarter, it added just 5,075 BTC, worth $399 million. For perspective, JPMorgan estimates that Strategy could buy $30 billion worth of BTC this year thanks to STRC.
Final summary
- Metaplanet reported a net loss of $750 million in the first quarter and noted that its preferred shares, intended for BTC accumulation, were postponed due to slow Japanese regulations.
- The setback could see the company fall behind Strategy, which is actively using its STRC to scale BTC accumulation