Metaplanet Cuts Equity Reward Pool by 41% Amid Shareholder Backlash
Metaplanet, a Japanese Bitcoin treasury company, has made a significant adjustment to its stock reward pool for executives. The company has reduced the size of the pool by 41% after shareholder pushback.
The original plan, launched in 2022, established a pool equivalent to 20% of Metaplanet's fully diluted share capital. However, this drew criticism from investors who entered after the adoption of a strategy focused on buying Bitcoin in 2024. They argued that the mechanism diluted their positions while enlarging those of management.
CEO Simon Gerovich acknowledged that the measure 'extinguishes more than $220 million in warrant value', the result of the floating mechanism at shareholders' expense. The 64 million shares that Gerovich received through his rights exercise on August 28 will not be returned, and Metaplanet has withdrawn its plan to transfer warrants to an employee incentive vehicle.
The company will now design a new compensation scheme together with external advisors. This decision follows an adjustment made in August, which reduced the pool size from approximately 320 million shares to 188.2 million shares.