Metaplanet Sold 10,000 BTC and Bought Back 11,000 to Show Lenders the Cash

Japan's Metaplanet sold 10,000 BTC in the third quarter, then bought back 11,000 BTC and closed the quarter with 44,000 BTC on its balance sheet. This was not a portfolio rotation. The company wanted to prove to lenders and rating agencies that its bitcoin can really be turned into cash. Everyone who holds Bitcoin in a treasury will now watch that signal.

What happened to the 10,000 BTC

According to CoinDesk, Metaplanet sold 10,000 BTC for about $789.2 million, an average of $78,925 per coin. It kept the proceeds in cash for a while, then bought 11,000 BTC for $948.7 million, at $86,246. The net gain was 1,000 BTC, and holdings reached 44,000 BTC on September 30, roughly $3.8 billion.

The debts were not repaid. Decrypt cites the company's filing. Liabilities net of cash and dollar stablecoins stood at 122.4 billion yen at quarter end, against sale proceeds of 124.7 billion yen. So more was sold than needed to repay every bond and loan. The cash sat there as proof, not as a payment.

Why show lenders the cash

In the filing, Metaplanet explains a simple point. Bitcoin is liquid, but rating agencies and bondholders care whether the issuer will actually sell it when a payment falls due. CEO Simon Gerovich put it that way in a post.

"Rating agencies and credit investors ask one question of a Bitcoin company: can that Bitcoin be turned into cash to meet obligations, and will it be? We answered by doing it."

- Simon Gerovich, Metaplanet CEO, from a post on X, October 5, 2026

The filing mentions "a previously published issuer credit rating of an overseas peer company" without naming it. Decrypt links this to Strategy: in October 2025 S&P gave it a B-, the first such rating for a bitcoin treasury, and listed low dollar liquidity among the risks. Strategy itself has gone further since. In June it approved a framework allowing sales of up to $1.25 billion to fund a cash reserve, dividends and buybacks, and by August it had sold 6,948 BTC for about $432.5 million.

What this demonstration cost

The method was expensive. The sale cleared at $78,925 and the buyback at $86,246, roughly 9% higher. For 11,000 BTC the company spent $159.5 million more than it received for 10,000 BTC. Decrypt counts that gap in yen and puts it at 25.2 billion.

Tax may win back part of the loss. The coins were bought higher than they were sold, so the sale produced a capital loss under US rules. Metaplanet estimates a deferred tax asset of about $97 million at subsidiaries of its US holding structure. The figure is preliminary, unaudited, and may not be recognized at all. No new accounting loss appears, because the company carries bitcoin at fair value.

There is a less pleasant fact too. The average purchase price of the whole stack is $98,454 per coin, while the market sits near $86,000. That puts the position about 12% underwater.

Which risks remain for shareholders

Showing liquidity does not fix the main problem of bitcoin treasuries. Growth is slowing and income from side businesses is shrinking.

• The options-based Bitcoin Income Generation business earned about $5.4 million in the third quarter, 51% less than in the second and 65% less than a year earlier.
• In the second quarter Metaplanet added 2,823 BTC, and the third quarter's net gain was roughly a third of that.
• The new Net Interest Income Strategy will put 10-15% of assets into preferred securities of other bitcoin treasuries, so the company ties its income to the same sector.
• The rating is still only planned, and nobody guarantees that agencies will judge this experiment the way the company hopes.

What this gives the market

Bitcoin treasuries are moving from a race for coin count to a fight for credit reputation. A big player has shown it will sell when needed and return as a buyer, which is a new kind of behavior in this market. For those tracking the price and wondering whether to exchange Bitcoin for dollars near $86,000, such a seller is one more source of short-term supply.