Metaplanet Stock Plummets as Investors Question Management's Trust
The Tokyo-listed Metaplanet is facing a brutal fortnight after its stock fell 17% in two days. The decline was triggered by CEO Simon Gerovich's statement on X, where he acknowledged that the company had not done well enough to explain the Series 10 stock option program for executives.
The market value of Metaplanet is currently below its Bitcoin holdings, with an mNAV (market value divided by the worth of a company's Bitcoin holdings) of approximately 0.97. This indicates that investors are no longer pricing the stock based on what it owns, but rather on whether they trust management to convert that balance sheet into per-share value.
The option pool has grown sixfold, with 319,464,000 potential shares fixed at a strike price of 10 yen. CEO Gerovich exercised his own subscription rights in late August, receiving 64,032,000 common shares and lifting his personal holding to 79,587,500 shares.
Metaplanet is not alone in facing scrutiny over its Bitcoin treasury. Strategy, another American heavyweight, has an mNAV of about 1.14, but has directed $176.3 million into repurchasing its own preferred stock instead of buying more Bitcoin.