Japanese Firm Metaplanet Adopts Bitcoin As Reserve Asset Amid Economic Pressures

According to CryptoPotato, Metaplanet, a Japanese investment and consulting company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has incorporated Bitcoin into its long-term financial strategies. The firm has adopted Bitcoin as its reserve asset in its treasury management strategy. Metaplanet will prioritize a Bitcoin-first, Bitcoin-only approach, using long-dated Japanese yen liabilities and periodic share issuances as financial options to continually purchase more BTC. The company views Bitcoin as fundamentally superior to any other forms of political currency, traditional stores of value, and investment, and all other crypto-assets/securities. Metaplanet's announcement comes a month after the firm invested one billion JPY ($6.5 million) into BTC, marking its transition to the leading crypto asset. The move is a response to the economic pressures on Japan, the weak yen, long periods of negative interest rates, and high government debt levels. Japan's challenging economic landscape saw the yen fall to 34-year lows a few weeks ago, amounting to a 50% depreciation against the USD in the past decade. Metaplanet explained that the country's unsustainable financial trajectory suggests an increasing rate of monetary devaluation in the future. Japan's debt-to-gross domestic product ratio is 261%, the highest in the developed world. The Bank of Japan implemented a negative interest rate policy in 2016 and artificially suppressed borrowing costs by printing the yen to purchase government bonds. Metaplanet's Bitcoin strategy would fortify its balance sheet against further devaluation of the yen and position the company as a BTC-focused investment vehicle.