Metaplanet posts a $725 million loss in Q1, and the issuance of new preferred shares is postponed

Metaplanet, the Japan-listed bitcoin holding company, released its first-quarter financial results for the 2026 fiscal year. It posted a net loss of $725 million (about 114.5 billion yen) for the quarter, mainly due to a decline in the market valuation of its bitcoin assets. According to Decrypt, CEO Simon Gerovich also announced that the originally planned new preferred shares “MARS” and “MERCURY” would be delayed in their issuance, with the timeline “longer than expected.”

Quarterly loss of $725 million, up 23x year-over-year: bitcoin market valuation is the main cause

Metaplanet’s Q1 FY26 financial report for the period ended March 31 shows:

Net loss: $725 million (114.5 billion yen)

Net loss in the same period last year: $31 million (about 23x year-over-year increase)

Bitcoin options contract quarterly revenue: $15.8 million (last year full-year: $4.8 million)

The main driver of the loss was not operating business, but Japan’s accounting standards: treating bitcoin as “inventory assets,” it must be revalued to market price at the end of each quarter, and price declines flow directly into the income statement. Metaplanet currently holds 40,177 bitcoins, added 5,075 during Q1 (up 14.5% quarter-over-quarter). Based on the current estimate of about $79,300 each, its total market value is about $3.18B, making it the third-largest publicly listed company bitcoin holder globally.

MARS, MERCURY preferred shares delayed: Japan market conventions differ from Strategy

The two new preferred shares “MARS” and “MERCURY” publicly announced by Metaplanet in November 2025—modeled after the preferred-share structures of STRC and others under Strategy, originally intended to finance the purchase of more bitcoin without issuing additional ordinary shares—have not been issued to date.

At the briefing, Gerovich said the reason for the delay is that “the time required to adapt to Japanese market conventions is longer than expected.” Dividend payments for listed Japanese companies are typically 1 to 2 times per year, unlike Strategy’s STRC monthly distribution structure. Metaplanet needs to adjust product design to meet expectations of Japanese investors, and this adjustment has not yet been completed.

For Metaplanet, preferred shares are a key financing instrument for maintaining its bitcoin accumulation strategy. If it continues down the path of ordinary share issuance, it would dilute existing shareholders. If it goes with debt financing, it would also increase liquidity pressure when bitcoin prices move downward. The delay of MARS and MERCURY means that in the short term the company must manage bitcoin price volatility within its existing capital structure.

Share price down 45% year-over-year, number of shareholders surges to 250k: retail base widens

On the financial report date, Metaplanet’s share price closed at 327 yen. Although it rebounded 5.8% over the past month, it is still down 45% compared with last year’s peak. Despite the weak share price, Metaplanet’s number of retail shareholders surged from 63,600 the previous year to about 250k, up 3x year-over-year.

This shift in shareholder structure indicates that Metaplanet has moved from being led by institutional players and niche special-purpose vehicles to a “Japan-version Strategy substitute” widely held by retail investors, with the party bearing liquidity risk significantly diversified.

Chain News observation: Metaplanet’s losses are essentially an accounting issue rather than an operating issue—its bitcoin holdings quantity is still increasing, and its options revenue is up more than 3x year-over-year. But this set of financials highlights two structural challenges in Japan-listed companies replicating the Strategy model: Japanese accounting standards make bitcoin price volatility directly reflected in the income statement (unlike the way it is shown as OCI in the US). In addition, Japan’s capital market has not yet become mature in its acceptance of financial engineering like “monthly dividend preferred shares.” When MARS and MERCURY can be successfully issued is a key indicator for whether Metaplanet can sustain its accumulation pace.

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