Metaplanet sold 10,000 bitcoin at $78,925, bought 11,000 at $86,246, and still holds 44,000 below cost

Metaplanet (Tokyo: 3350), the Japanese company that holds bitcoin as its main treasury asset, said it added a net 1,000 bitcoin in the third quarter, bringing holdings to 44,000 BTC as of September 30, CoinDesk reported. The net figure hides the trades behind it: the company sold 10,000 coins and then bought 11,000.

The trades behind the net 1,000

CoinDesk says the company held the sale proceeds in cash to show it could cover its interest-bearing debt, although the debt was not repaid, and then bought back at higher prices. The stated purpose was to demonstrate liquidity and strengthen its credit profile.

Here is the arithmetic the reports leave out. Selling 10,000 coins at $78,925 and buying 10,000 back at $86,246 costs about $73 million more than not trading at all (10,000 x $7,321). That is our calculation from the two averages, and it ignores fees and the timing of the cash. It is the price the company paid for the demonstration, and the company has not described it that way.

Holdings against cost

Metaplanet's total holdings carry a cost basis of about $4.33 billion, or $98,454 per bitcoin, according to CoinDesk. Coinbase showed bitcoin at $86,290 this morning. At that price 44,000 coins are worth about $3.80 billion, which matches CoinDesk's $3.8 billion figure, and sit roughly $535 million, or 12.4%, below cost (our arithmetic).

That is the opposite position from Strategy, whose bitcoin sits above its average cost after the third quarter. We covered that filing in Strategy books a $20.91 billion third-quarter bitcoin gain. The gap comes from when each company bought. Metaplanet's average cost reflects purchases made when bitcoin was higher, so the price has to rise about 14% from today's level, to $98,454, before the position is back to even (our arithmetic).

The new income strategy

On Monday Metaplanet also published a revised capital allocation policy. Cointelegraph reported that 10% to 15% of total assets can move into strategic investments, including acquisitions and interest-bearing assets, with bitcoin staying at 85% to 90% of assets. CoinDesk adds that the new Net Interest Income Strategy targets mainly preferred securities issued by bitcoin treasury companies, seeking a return above the company's funding costs.

The existing income business is shrinking. CoinDesk reports that the options-based Bitcoin Income Generation unit earned about $5.4 million in the third quarter, down 51% from the second quarter and 65% from a year earlier, against about $35.2 million for the first nine months. The new strategy is partly a response to that fall, though the company has not said so in the material we read.

What else is going on

Cointelegraph links the policy change to shareholder concerns about governance and capital structure. It reports that Metaplanet issued five corrected securities filings on Friday about the voting rights in MMX Ventures, a shareholder, and that in September it cut its Series 10 executive stock option pool by 41%, after expanding it almost sevenfold in August. Metaplanet shares closed 2% higher on Monday at 297 yen, about $1.88, per CoinDesk, and are down about 26% so far this year, per Cointelegraph, which cited Yahoo Finance.

We could not find, in the two reports or the figures they quote, the company's own filing with the full sale and purchase dates, so the averages above are as reported rather than checked against the notice itself. For live prices see crypto prices.

Sources: CoinDesk, October 5, 2026; Cointelegraph, October 5, 2026; Coinbase. Percentages and dollar differences not attributed to a source are our arithmetic. This is market information, not investment advice.