Japan-based early-stage investment firm Metaplanet continues its Bitcoin (BTC) buying spree. The company announced today that it has purchased 619.7 BTC for $61 million – including fees and other expenses – making it the firm’s largest Bitcoin acquisition to date.

Metaplanet Increases BTC Holdings To 1,762

The recent crypto market downturn from its all-time highs (ATH) does not appear to bother Metaplanet, as the Tokyo-listed firm made its largest BTC purchase to date, buying 619.7 BTC worth $ 61 million at an average price of around $96,000.

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To recall, Metaplanet started buying BTC earlier this year in May with a purchase of 97.9 BTC. Since then, the company has purchased BTC every month, barring September, and crossed the 1,000 BTC milestone in November. The latest acquisition has pushed Metaplanet’s total Bitcoin holdings to 1,762, bought at an average price of $75,600 per BTC.

Notably, this $61 million purchase is nearly double the value of Metaplanet’s previous largest acquisition, which occurred in November and was worth close to $30 million. The company’s consistent BTC accumulation has earned it the nickname “Asia’s MicroStrategy,” in reference to the US-based business intelligence firm known for its aggressive Bitcoin buying strategy.

It is worth highlighting that today’s BTC purchase comes a week after Metaplanet raised $60.6 million through two tranches of bond issuance for the purpose of “accelerating BTC purchases.” Metaplanet’s latest purchase also makes its BTC reserves the 12th-largest among publicly listed firms globally.

According to Metaplanet’s official announcement, its BTC Yield – a proprietary metric used to measure the performance of its Bitcoin acquisition strategy – stood at 310% from October 1 to December 23. The firm emphasized that this strategy is designed to be “accretive to shareholders.”

Despite today’s significant BTC purchase, Metaplanet’s stock price saw little movement, closing at $22.5, down 0.98% for the day. However, on a year-to-date basis, the company’s stock has surged by an astounding 1,982%, reflecting the long-term benefits of its Bitcoin-centric strategy.

Bitcoin Supply Crunch To Hasten Adoption?

With Bitcoin’s total maximum supply capped at 21 million, the digital asset has solidified its reputation as an inflation-resistant store of value. A recent report highlights that BTC supply on crypto exchanges has hit multi-year lows, indicating that holders are increasingly withdrawing BTC from exchanges, reducing circulating supply and potentially driving prices higher.

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Bitcoin’s scarcity has triggered an unofficial race among corporations – and possibly even governments. For instance, Bitcoin mining firm Hut 8 recently purchased 990 BTC for $100 million, increasing its total holdings to over 10,000 BTC. Similarly, MARA, another Bitcoin mining company, acquired 703 BTC earlier this month, bringing its total holdings to 34,794 BTC.

Speculations surrounding a potential US strategic Bitcoin reserve are further strengthening BTC’s supply crunch narrative, which may fast-track its adoption. At press time, BTC trades at $94,003, down 1.5% in the past 24 hours.

Featured image from Unsplash, charts from Yahoo! Finance and Tradingview.com

Tokyo-listed Metaplanet has purchased another 9.5 billion yen ($60.6 million) worth of Bitcoin, pushing its holdings to 1,761.98 BTC.

Metaplanet, a publicly traded Japanese company, has acquired 619.7 Bitcoin as part of its crypto treasury strategy, paying an average of 15,330,073 yen per (BTC), with a total investment of 9.5 billion yen.

Horizen price spiked more than 60% in 24 hours as the cryptocurrency market looked to recover from a massive dump that saw top altcoins crash to key support levels.

On Dec. 20, as Bitcoin (BTC) traded to above $97k and Ethereum (ETH) bulls pushed above $3,400, the price of Horizen (ZEN) surged to highs of $26.34. The cryptocurrency, which rallied sharply following a recent Grayscale Investments announcement, reached a multi-year high and ranked among the top gainers in the 500 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.

ZEN traded at lows of $14.55 on Dec. 19. However, despite the broader crypto crash and the staggering $1.4 billion liquidations, the altcoin’s price hovered above $26 in early trading during the U.S. trading session.

According to crypto.news price data, Horizen recorded a 24-hour trading volume of over $397 million, with its market cap exceeding $407 million. These metrics reflected increases of 294% and 62%, respectively, in the past 24 hours. While ZEN has surged nearly 200% over the past month, its current levels are still more than 84% below the all-time high of $168 reached in May 2021.

If the broader crypto market continues to rebound, ZEN bulls may aim for March 2022 highs near $50.

The positive momentum has benefited from Grayscale opening of the Grayscale ZEN Trust to qualified investors. Prices of the altcoin rose as the digital asset manager unveiled the fund to offer exposure to Horizen for qualified investors.

Earlier this month, Horizen’s native token underwent its final halving, which came as the project geared for a key change in its tokenomics. ZEN will not see any further halvings as the new network mechanism enables a declining emission rate.

That’s because Horizen, is shifting from the proof of work mining model that mirrored Bitcoin’s halving cycle to a new proof of stake mechanism in 2025. Horizen’s last halving occurred on Dec. 12, 2024.

New tokenomics for Horizen will come into effect in the first half of 2025.