Metaplanet, the Tokyo-listed company that holds 44,000 bitcoin, reported a net loss of ¥27.16 billion for the nine months to 30 September 2026 in results filed on 13 November, against a profit of ¥13.53 billion a year earlier. Most of the loss traces back to one decision: in the third quarter it sold 10,000 BTC for ¥124.7 billion, booking a ¥19.17 billion loss on the sale, then bought 11,000 BTC back at a higher average price. The same day it cut its full-year revenue forecast by 59.4%, from ¥16 billion to ¥6.5 billion.
The business underneath held up better than the bottom line. Revenue rose 30.5% to ¥5.9 billion and operating profit rose 26.5% to ¥3.48 billion, because Japanese accounting books bitcoin gains and losses below the operating line. What weakened is the funding. With its mNAV below 1.0x for most of the year, Metaplanet stopped selling new common shares, bought fewer coins and earned less from its option-selling unit, and the ¥52 billion convertible bond it sold in October is going to share buybacks and debt repayment, not to bitcoin.
Borrowing under its bitcoin-backed credit line also sat at about 17.7% of the value of its bitcoin at the end of September, well above the 10% guideline the company set for itself.
Metaplanet’s ¥27.2 billion loss: ¥19.2 billion came from one sale
The company calls the trade a “demonstration of Bitcoin liquidity”. Its subsidiary sold 10,000 BTC at an average of ¥12,470,098 per coin, for ¥124.70 billion. The coins carried a book value of about ¥143.9 billion, so the sale produced the ¥19.17 billion realised loss shown in the notice on non-operating items. Metaplanet held the cash in yen, dollar stablecoins and other liquid forms, then repurchased 11,000 BTC in separate trades at an average of ¥13,626,928, for ¥149.90 billion.
That repurchase price is 9.3% above the sale price. Put another way, buying back only the 10,000 coins it had sold would have cost about ¥136.3 billion at that average, roughly ¥11.6 billion more than the sale raised (Coindaro’s arithmetic from the filing). The company ended the round trip with 1,000 more bitcoin and a large realised loss on its books.
Why do it? The filing says the goal was “to demonstrate its ability to convert Bitcoin into cash in an amount approximately equivalent to the Group’s outstanding financing balance”. The ¥124.7 billion raised roughly matched its bonds, borrowings and preferred shares net of cash and dollar stablecoins, which stood at ¥127.1 billion on 30 September. Judging by the ratings given to overseas peers, Metaplanet says bitcoin held by a company that will not sell it may not count fully as a liquid asset in credit assessments. A real sale, it argues, should help it obtain a credit rating and widen its funding options. It gives no assurance that a rating will follow, nor when.
There is a tax side. The coins sold by the US subsidiary had a cost basis above the sale price, which creates a capital loss under US tax rules that Metaplanet hopes to offset against future gains at its US companies. Whether that loss is ever used depends on future gains. The company has not booked a deferred tax asset for it: the earnings presentation says it will decide whether to recognise one, and how much, after talks with its auditor.
| Sale and buyback, Q3 2026 | Coins | Average price per BTC | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sold (book value about ¥143.9bn) | 10,000 BTC | ¥12,470,098 | ¥124,700 million |
| Bought back | 11,000 BTC | ¥13,626,928 | ¥149,896 million |
| Net change | +1,000 BTC | +9.3% | ¥25,196 million more spent |
| Realised loss on the sale | ¥19,171 million |
The rest of the loss is the price of bitcoin. The quarterly marks swung hard: a ¥116.4 billion valuation loss in the first quarter, a ¥67.9 billion loss in the second, then a ¥176.3 billion gain in the third, leaving a net valuation loss of ¥8.04 billion for the nine months. Interest expense of ¥3.17 billion and ¥1.06 billion of amortised share issuance costs complete most of the gap between operating profit and the ordinary loss of ¥27.57 billion.
Operating profit rose 26.5%, but option income shrank every quarter
Metaplanet’s revenue comes almost entirely from what it calls the Bitcoin Income business: it uses part of its coins and cash as collateral to sell options and other derivatives, collecting premiums. Over nine months the Bitcoin-related segment booked ¥5.61 billion of revenue, made of ¥7.01 billion of option premiums minus a ¥1.42 billion loss on the valuation of those derivatives. Its hotel business added ¥285 million.
The trend runs the wrong way. Bitcoin-related revenue was ¥2.98 billion in the first quarter, ¥1.76 billion in the second and ¥867 million in the third. The filing explains why: the business scales with the coins and cash the company can post as collateral, and slower growth in its bitcoin holdings “placed certain constraints” on it. Segment profit still reached ¥5.02 billion for the nine months, up from ¥3.25 billion, while head-office costs rose to ¥1.64 billion from ¥610 million.
mNAV below 1.0x: why Metaplanet stopped selling new shares
mNAV is the yardstick every crypto treasury company is now judged by. Metaplanet defines it as enterprise value (market capitalisation plus liabilities and preferred capital, minus cash) divided by BTC NAV, the market value of its bitcoin. Above 1.0x, the market values the company at more than its coins, so selling new shares to buy bitcoin raises the amount of bitcoin behind each share. Below 1.0x, the same share sale dilutes existing holders.
Metaplanet’s capital policy therefore bars, in principle, issuing common shares below 1.0x. According to the filing, its mNAV “fluctuated around 1.0x and remained below 1.0x for most of the period”. The last share sales were third-party allotments on 13 February and 31 March, when it issued 131,897,000 shares for ¥53.04 billion. In the second and third quarters it issued none and funded purchases with an interest-free ¥8 billion bond issued on 24 April, a bitcoin-backed credit line, about ¥200 million of small “BitBonds” sold through its new securities arm, warrant exercises and option income.
The filings do not give a current mNAV figure. They give the ingredients: a BTC NAV of ¥578.6 billion at the end of September and a reference value of ¥501.5 billion at the 12 November bitcoin price.
BTC Yield of 11.3% came mostly from a smaller share count
BTC Yield is Metaplanet’s main performance indicator. It measures the change in bitcoin per fully diluted share, so it rises when the company adds coins faster than it adds shares, and also when the count of potential shares falls. At 30 September the company held 0.0293312 BTC per 1,000 fully diluted shares, against 0.0240486 at the end of 2025: a BTC Yield of 22.0% for nine months and 11.3% for the third quarter alone.
The third-quarter number needs a footnote, and the company gives one. Metaplanet amended its 10th Series of Stock Acquisition Rights on 18 August and again on 11 September, cutting the potential shares behind them from 319,464,000 to 188,190,000. Fully diluted shares fell from 1,631,543,380 at the end of June to 1,500,108,824. Bitcoin holdings rose only 2.3% in the quarter, from 43,000 to 44,000 BTC, so most of the 11.3% came from the smaller denominator. The yield measures bitcoin per share, not profit, and the company says it is not a measure of operating performance.
Metaplanet cuts its 2026 forecast: revenue to ¥6.5 billion, operating profit to ¥3.0 billion
The revised forecast notice replaces the targets of 16 February. It still gives no ordinary profit or net profit forecast, because those depend on the bitcoin price at year-end.
| Fiscal year to 31 December (¥ million) | Revenue | Operating income |
|---|---|---|
| Forecast of 16 February 2026 | 16,000 | 11,400 |
| Revised forecast, 13 November 2026 | 6,500 | 3,000 |
| Change | -9,500 (-59.4%) | -8,400 (-73.7%) |
| Nine months to 30 September 2026 (actual) | 5,895 | 3,476 |
| Fiscal 2025 (actual) | 8,905 | 6,287 |
The notice explains the cut. The original plan assumed the funding conditions of late 2025 would last. They did not: with mNAV below 1.0x, Metaplanet raised far less than planned, which shrank both its bitcoin purchases and the scale of its option business. The October convertible will mostly fund buybacks. And the fourth quarter carries new costs from consolidating Metaplanet Securities, the former Siiibo Securities bought for ¥2.1 billion in July, including goodwill amortisation.
The new targets also imply a weak fourth quarter. Nine-month revenue already stands at ¥5.9 billion, so a ¥6.5 billion year leaves about ¥605 million for October to December, below the ¥867 million the Bitcoin Income business alone earned in the third quarter. Operating profit of ¥3.0 billion for the year, after ¥3.48 billion in nine months, implies an operating loss of about ¥476 million in the last quarter (both figures Coindaro’s arithmetic). The company adds that option valuations at year-end can move the result either way. “The Company’s Bitcoin-centered financial strategy remains unchanged,” the notice says.
Borrowings at 17.7% of BTC NAV, against a 10% guideline
Metaplanet’s bitcoin-collateralised credit facility can lend up to $800 million. About $650 million was drawn on 30 September, and short-term borrowings on the balance sheet more than doubled, to ¥102.2 billion from ¥43.8 billion at the end of 2025. The capital policy aims to keep such borrowings below about 10% of BTC NAV. At the quarter’s end they were about 17.7%.
Debt costs rose with the balance. Interest expense was ¥1.36 billion in the third quarter against ¥871 million in the second, an increase of about 56%. Total liabilities stood at ¥114.3 billion, against total assets of ¥601.2 billion, and the equity ratio was 80.9%. The presentation also counts ¥23.6 billion of MERCURY preferred shares (Class B), which pay ¥12.25 per share each quarter, 4.9% a year on face value, and can convert into common stock. That brings debt plus preferred to ¥137.9 billion.
The fix announced is partial. Metaplanet earmarked ¥23.6 billion of the convertible’s proceeds to repay borrowings in November. Subtracting that from ¥102.2 billion leaves about ¥78.6 billion, close to 16% of the ¥501.5 billion reference value of its bitcoin on 12 November (Coindaro’s calculation, which assumes the short-term borrowings are mostly the facility). The guideline would still be exceeded unless bitcoin recovers or more is repaid.
The ¥52 billion convertible pays for buybacks and debt, not bitcoin
After the quarter closed, Metaplanet sold ¥52 billion of zero-coupon euro-yen convertible bonds due 2031, offered outside the United States with Merrill Lynch International as sole bookrunner, at 102.5% of face value. Payment came on 29 October and the bonds are listed in Singapore. The use-of-proceeds table in the nine-month report totals ¥51.9 billion: ¥23.6 billion to repay borrowings and up to ¥28.3 billion for share buybacks between October and December. Nothing is set aside for bitcoin.
On 13 October the board approved a new buyback of up to ¥60 billion or 200 million shares, 14.7% of the shares outstanding, until 13 October 2027. About ¥25.3 billion of it was set for off-market ToSTNeT-3 purchases, meant to absorb selling linked to the convertible. By 12 November the company had bought 108,703,600 shares for ¥28.27 billion, an average of about ¥260 per share, according to its buyback notice; ¥3.0 billion of that was spent from 1 to 12 November. That ¥28.27 billion already matches the ¥28.3 billion of convertible proceeds set aside for buybacks.
For shareholders, this is the trade-off the company has chosen. Buying back stock below the value of the coins behind it raises bitcoin per share without buying a single coin, and Metaplanet says that is its priority while the share price stays where it is. It also means the stack stops growing, the option business has less collateral, and the new bonds can later turn into new shares if holders convert.
44,000 BTC, now worth ¥77 billion less than at the end of September
Metaplanet held 44,000 BTC on 30 September, up from 35,102 at the end of 2025. Over nine months it bought 7,898 BTC for ¥99.8 billion in the first half and 11,000 in the third quarter, and sold 10,000. Its average cost is ¥15,555,717 per coin, ¥684.5 billion in total. Citing BitcoinTreasuries.net data of 12 November, it ranks itself second among listed companies, far behind Strategy, and says it holds about 88% of the bitcoin owned by Japanese listed companies.
The presentation shows how fast that value moves. BTC NAV was ¥578.6 billion on 30 September; at the 12 November price the same coins were worth ¥501.5 billion, ¥77.1 billion less. That reference value works out to about ¥11.4 million per coin, roughly 27% below the average cost, on Coindaro’s calculation. Bitcoin traded near $68,980 around 20:07 UTC on 13 November, which values 44,000 BTC at about $3.04 billion. The day’s fall below $70,000 is covered in our analysis of the 13 November US session.
Next tests: MSCI on 30 November, Super League before year-end
The index question is already settled. In the Global Small Cap review results MSCI published on 11 November, Metaplanet is the only deletion from the MSCI Japan small-cap index, effective at the close of business on 30 November, as Coindaro reported when MSCI confirmed Strategy’s removal from its USA, World and ACWI indexes. The change follows the rule on non-operating companies MSCI adopted in October. The 13 November filings do not mention MSCI, and they give no estimate of index-linked selling.
The other pending deal is Super League Enterprise (Nasdaq: SLE), which is to receive 2,100 BTC, about 4.8% of Metaplanet’s coins, plus $2.5 million, and become a majority-controlled subsidiary renamed Superplanet. Super League holders approved the deal on 16 October; closing is still expected in the fourth quarter, subject to Nasdaq filings and other conditions, and had not happened when the results were published; the company says completion is not guaranteed. If it closes, only Superplanet’s balance sheet will be consolidated at 31 December.
Two other plans are still on paper. Metaplanet has started preliminary talks with the Tokyo Stock Exchange about listing perpetual preferred shares, with no timetable and no guarantee of approval; its MARS Class A preferred is registered but not issued. And it will add Net Interest Income and Net Interest Margin to the KPIs it reports, under a policy adopted on 5 October that keeps 85% to 90% of assets in bitcoin and 10% to 15% in other investments.
Dates to watch:
- November 2026: repayment of ¥23.6 billion of borrowings from the convertible’s proceeds.
- 30 November 2026, close of business: Metaplanet leaves the MSCI Japan small-cap index.
- Fourth quarter 2026: expected closing of the Super League investment.
- Full-year results for 2026: date not yet announced, with the decision on the US tax-loss asset still pending.