Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich stated that the Japanese company building a bitcoin reserve will make additional changes to its Series 10 stock acquisition rights amid shareholder dissatisfaction over dilution concerns.
Metaplanet will reduce the number of underlying shares for these rights by 131.3 million—from 319.464 million to 188.19 million—by changing the conversion ratio from 1:696 to 1:410, effectively returning it to the level prior to the company's international share placement in September 2025, Gerovich said in a Friday post on X.
Shares already transferred through previous exercises of these rights will not be returned or canceled. The reduction applies to the number of shares available for future exercises of the rights.
According to Gerovich, this change cancels over $220 million in warrant value and increases the company's bitcoin per fully diluted share by approximately 8.8%.
Metaplanet will abandon plans to allocate up to 90,000 rights to a long-term executive and employee incentive mechanism and will develop a new compensation program with a leading global compensation consultant. Under the revised terms, all unvested rights will be subject to additional exercise restrictions: one-third of the rights can be exercised in 2029, 2030, and 2031 respectively.
The change follows shareholder criticism of the expansion of the options pool from 46 million to 319.5 million shares. Metaplanet noted that it recorded the pool size at 319.5 million shares on August 18th, but some shareholders called for canceling the 273 million additional potential shares created by the expansion.
In a Friday post, Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck, called the adjustment a "meaningful concession" that better aligns management's interests with those of shareholders.
On August 31st, Metaplanet disclosed that Gerovich had exercised rights to acquire 92,000 shares from the Series 10 pool. Gerovich stated he did not participate in the board's discussion and vote on this change as he is a holder of Series 10 rights.
On August 18th, the company acknowledged that the pool expansion "increases the dilution borne by existing shareholders."
Related:Metaplanet buys 2,823 BTC, bringing its bitcoin holdings to over 43,000
Metaplanet Plans to Establish Asset Management Subsidiary in Hong Kong
Metaplanet also announced plans on Friday to establish Metaplanet Asset Management Asia Limited in Hong Kong later in September with an initial capital of $1 million.
The subsidiary will trade bitcoin, equities, and credit products during Asian market hours.
The new structure is part of Metaplanet's "Project Nova," which aims to create a bitcoin-centric platform encompassing asset management, securities, capital markets, and other financial services.
In June, Metaplanet agreed to acquire Siiibo Securities for ¥2.1 billion ($13.1 million) to form a brokerage unit.
Metaplanet share price: 5-day chart. Source: Yahoo Finance
Metaplanet shares fell 3.8% on Friday, bringing the five-day decline to 15%, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Magazine:Bitcoin adoption metrics say one thing, price action says another
