Japan's Metaplanet buys additional $1.2 million worth of bitcoin, shares surge 26%

Reported by The Block: The Tokyo-listed firm saw its stock surge 25.8% during the morning session.
The latest acquisition disclosed today brings its total bitcoin holdings to about $14.2 million.

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet Inc. saw its stock price jump 25.8% during the Tuesday morning session after announcing that it has purchased additional bitcoin worth about $1.26 million.

The Tokyo-listed company disclosed today that it bought an additional 200 million yen worth of bitcoin, or 21.877 BTC.  That brings its total bitcoin holdings to 225.611 BTC, or about 2.25 billion yen ($14.2 million).

The latest acquisition comes just a week after the company bought 42.47 BTC on July 8.  In May, the company announced that it started to adopt bitcoin as its strategic treasury reserve asset.  “The move is a direct response to sustained economic pressures in Japan, notably high government debt levels, prolonged periods of negative real interest rates, and the consequently weak yen,” the company said at the time.

Metaplanet’s stock surged about 25.81% in the morning session, according to Google Finance.

Last month, Metaplanet announced that its board of directors had agreed to purchase bitcoin worth 1 billion yen ($6.26 million) using the capital raised through a round of bond issuance.

Bitcointreasuries.net data shows that Metaplanet previously purchased bitcoin on April 23, May 10, June 11, July 1, and July 8.