Digital asset Treasury company Metaplanet (3350) rose 4% in Tokyo on Wednesday after index provider MSCI decided not to exclude firms building cryptocurrency stocks from its global indexes.
Metaplanet is now up 20% since the start of the year. The increase means the company is valued at a premium to its bitcoin holdings, with a multiple to net asset value (mNAV) of around 1.25, the highest level since before October’s plunge in crypto prices, according to the company’s dashboard.
The decision ended months of uncertainty over the index’s eligibility and lifted US peers as the announcement was made after regular trading hours on Tuesday. Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin was recently 5% higher in premarket trading. Other digital asset treasury companies rose to a lesser extent.
Metaplanet shares closed at 531 yen ($3.4), after bottoming near 340 yen on Nov. 18. The company has 35,102 BTC, making it the fourth largest publicly traded bitcoin treasury company globally.
MSCI’s announcement removes a short-term overhang for sovereign crypto stocks, especially those already included in major indexes. However, the index provider also signaled that a broader hearing on non-operating and investment-oriented companies is on the way, indicating that regulatory and index-related risks for bitcoin tax companies have been deferred, not eliminated.
