Japan's MicroStrategy Buys More Bitcoin

Japanese investment adviser Metaplanet has bought an additional 57.273 BTC for $3.4 million. 

As of Aug. 20, the company holds roughly $22 million worth of Bitcoin. 

Earlier this month, the company arranged a loan with an annual interest rate of 0.1% in order to buy $6.8 million worth of Bitcoin. 

Metaplanet initially took a page out of MicroStrategy's playbook back in May by adopting the largest cryptocurrency as its reserve asset. 

Before pivoting to MicroStrategy-like Bitcoin evangelism, Metaplanet was a Web3 consulting firm. Prior to that, it was operating low-cost hotels. 

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The Bitcoin pivot was supposed to shield the publicly traded company from the weak Japanese yen. The Japanese currency started experiencing a steep decline against the US dollar earlier this year due to the US Federal Reserve refraining from cutting interest rates. 

In April, the yen sank to its lowest level against the US dollar since the early 1990s. Back then, the Japanese economy was reeling from the bursting of the real estate bubble. Now, the rapid depreciation of the yen was caused by the unfavorable macroeconomic environment. 

Bitcoin has long been touted by its proponents as a hedge against irresponsible monetary policies. 

MicroStrategy initially allocated a portion of its cash reserved into Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. It went on to become the biggest corporate holder of the leading cryptocurrency. The company now holds roughly $13.8 billion worth of Bitcoin. 

Despite MicroStrategy's success, Bitcoin's corporate adoption has been mostly non-existent.