UPDATED: METAPLANET BIDS FOR 7.1% OF ITS SHARES WITH BOND MONEY — ITS CEO LENDS 55 MILLION OF HIS OWN SO BOND BUYERS CAN HEDGE — TWO WEEKS AFTER THE DIRECTORS CALLED THE TEAM “DEEPLY ALIGNED”

Metaplanet said on October 13, 2026 that it’s selling ¥52 billion of zero-coupon convertible bonds due 2031. They close October 29. About ¥23.6 billion pays down a loan in November. Up to about ¥28.3 billion buys back stock between October and December. The notice says the raise isn’t meant to raise bitcoin per share right away. None of it buys bitcoin.

Page one says why. Metaplanet’s own rule keeps its bitcoin-backed loan under 10% of its bitcoin’s value. On September 30 it was about 17.7%: $649.5 million drawn on an $800 million line. The company says it wants room so a falling price doesn’t force it to sell coins.

At about ¥158 to the dollar, the paydown is about $149 million. That still leaves about $500 million drawn, roughly 13.6%. So it’s still over the line, and the buyback is bigger than the paydown.

UPDATE: Gerovich posted the buyback details on X. Up to ¥25.3 billion goes through one block trade in Tokyo on the morning of October 14, Tokyo time. That’s up to 96,934,800 shares, 7.1% of the company, at about ¥261 each.

Our math, on CEBE Tracker’s September 30 numbers with the bond counted at face: debt and preferred go from about 21% of the 44,000 bitcoin to about 25%. But the stock is bought at about 0.78 times its coins. If the block fills, each share goes from 2,544 sats of bitcoin to about 2,586, up about 1.7%. And a loan that can force a coin sale turns into a bond that can only turn into shares.

Then there’s Gerovich. On September 29 the independent directors wrote that the founding team is “deeply aligned” with shareholders. Their letter defends the Series 10 warrants. The September 11 notice shows one director got 64,032,000 shares from them, locked from sale until August 17, 2031.

In this deal he lends up to 55,000,000 of his shares, through a holding company he owns, to the bond manager at 0.75% a year, so bond buyers can short the stock to hedge. The notice doesn’t say which shares. At ¥261, a full loan pays up to about ¥108 million a year to his company. That’s normal in a convertible. He’s also agreed not to sell for 45 days, though the deal lets him sell into the company’s own buyback.

But the letter says the Series 10 slice, about 12.5%, shrinks when new stock is sold. A buyback runs the other way. With up to 7.1% fewer shares outstanding, the slice gets bigger.

At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $83,460.