Metaplanet CEO addresses shareholder concerns over dilution, but investors aren’t satisfied

When the CEO of a Bitcoin treasury company finally speaks up about governance concerns, you’d expect the stock to stabilize. Metaplanet’s shares had a different idea, falling roughly 7.5% to close at 271 yen on September 7, the trading session after CEO Simon Gerovich posted his response to shareholder criticism. The Tokyo-listed firm, which adopted a Bitcoin-centric treasury strategy in 2024, is facing pointed questions about an executive stock option pool that ballooned nearly sevenfold. Gerovich’s attempt to reassure investors appears to have had the opposite effect. The option pool problem At the center of the controversy is Metaplanet’s Series 10 executive option pool. Originally sized at approximately 46 million shares, the pool swelled to 319.46 million shares thanks to a floating allocation formula tied to the company’s fully diluted share count. On August 18, the company moved to cap the pool at 319.46 million shares, freezing it at its already-expanded size. A five-year lock-up was also instituted, meaning those options can’t be touched until August 17, 2031. Just ten days after the cap was announced, Gerovich exercised 92,000 units on August 28, converting them into 64,0...