Benchmark says the market has misread Metaplanet's ¥2.1 billion purchase of Siiibo Securities, arguing the brokerage is the base layer for a bitcoin-backed bond market in Japan. The Tokyo-listed treasury company envisions instruments yielding roughly 4% to 6%, eventually settled onchain with stablecoins. Benchmark kept its Buy rating and ¥405 price target.
Metaplanet's newly acquired brokerage will not act as a funding channel for the company's own bitcoin purchases. It will instead become the foundation for a new bitcoin-backed fixed-income market for tokenized bonds that Metaplanet calls "Bitbonds," according to Benchmark.
Analyst Mark Palmer wrote that the market largely treated the ¥2.1 billion (~$13 million) acquisition as a modest bolt-on — a reading that, in his view, understates what the company plans to do with the firm.
A Type-1 license does the heavy lifting
Palmer noted the deal gives Metaplanet a Type-1 Financial Instrument Business Operator license, which allows it to structure and distribute securities in Japan. Dylan LeClair, Metaplanet's director of bitcoin strategy, said licenses of this type normally take a couple of quarters or more to file for and obtain from scratch.
That shortcut is what makes the wider plan possible. LeClair told Benchmark the longer-term goal is for Metaplanet Securities to become a platform where a company looking to adopt a bitcoin treasury strategy could issue debt to fund its BTC purchases.
Bitbonds at 4% to 6%
The firm said it envisions these bitcoin-backed bonds yielding roughly 4% to 6% and eventually moving them onchain with stablecoin settlement, then building a secondary market over the next few years. Benchmark called that an extension of Metaplanet's "Project Nova" roadmap, which looks to expand the company beyond a corporate bitcoin treasury by acquiring businesses with cash flows and building bitcoin-native financial infrastructure.
Some of that groundwork is already public. Metaplanet unveiled a joint study on July 10 with yen-denominated stablecoin issuer JPYC and tokenization platform Progmat under the Project NOVA name. The company has been clear that no concrete products exist yet, with no finalized terms, issuance timelines or confirmed coupon structures.
Benchmark holds Buy and a ¥405 target
Benchmark maintained its Buy rating and ¥405 (roughly $2.47) price target on the stock. Palmer's takeaway is that the market is still pricing Metaplanet as a passive bitcoin proxy while the company prepares to execute on a plan to bootstrap an entire capital market.
LeClair summed up the effort as building "a new kind of financial institution from Japan, with bitcoin at its core."
Metaplanet currently holds 43,000 BTC worth nearly $2.8 billion and is the third-largest publicly traded bitcoin treasury company, according to The Block's data.
Sources: The Block, Crypto Briefing
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