Metaplanet Posts $170M Loss After Selling 10,000 BTC

Japan's Metaplanet, the world's second-largest public corporate holder of bitcoin, ended the first nine months of 2026 with a net loss of 27.16 billion yen (about $170 million). A year earlier the company made 13.53 billion yen ($84.6 million) over the same period. The main hit came from selling part of its coins and from their lower value.

What hit the results

The loss on the bitcoin sale came to 19.17 billion yen ($119.8 million). Another 8.04 billion yen ($50.3 million) was lost because the coins left on the balance sheet got cheaper. Profit from the core business could not cover those amounts.

Revenue for nine months rose 30.5% to 5.9 billion yen ($36.9 million), and operating profit grew 26.5% to 3.48 billion yen ($21.8 million). The company still cut its full-year revenue forecast to 6.5 billion yen ($40.6 million) from 16 billion yen ($100 million).

Selling and buying back coins

In the third quarter Metaplanet sold 10,000 Bitcoin for 124.7 billion yen and briefly held the proceeds in cash, stablecoins and other liquid assets. It then spent 149.9 billion yen to buy 11,000 BTC, paying 9.3% more per coin on average.

That is how the company explained the move itself. In the end holdings grew by 1,000 coins, to 44,000 BTC at the end of September.

Debt grows along with interest

On its credit line backed by bitcoin, Metaplanet owes $649.5 million against $414 million at the end of June. Short-term borrowings and bonds payable stood at 110.5 billion yen ($691 million).

• Interest expense for the quarter rose 56%, to 1.36 billion yen ($8.5 million).
• Coin purchases since the second quarter were funded with credit line loans, bond sales and the exercise of stock rights.
• Extra income came from the bitcoin options business.

Pressure from two sides

The report landed at a weak moment for such companies. MSCI confirmed that Metaplanet, Strategy and Upexi will be dropped from its indexes after the close on November 30, and funds that track those benchmarks may start selling the shares. JPMorgan estimated that Strategy's removal alone could bring about $2.8 billion of selling pressure.

Bitcoin itself slipped below $70,000 on Friday and traded near $68,600, down 9% on the week, according to CoinGecko. For a company with debt secured by coins that is bad timing, since the cheaper the collateral gets, the costlier it is to carry the loans.