Metaplanet’s Bitcoin boom quietly turned a 46 million-share executive pay plan into a 319 million-share windfall

Metaplanet’s Bitcoin expansion has exposed an executive compensation windfall that shareholders want the company to unwind.The dispute centers on an executive options pool that expanded as the Tokyo-listed company repeatedly issued equity to finance its Bitcoin purchases.Shareholders are now demanding the cancellation of roughly 273 million potential shares added to management’s compensation package during that expansion.Bitcoin fundraising swelled the executive pay poolThe controversy centers on Metaplanet’s Series 10 stock acquisition rights. Shareholders approved the plan in early 2023, before the company’s pivot to digital assets, and it initially covered 46 million shares.The plan also contained an adjustment mechanism designed to maintain the shares underlying the options at a benchmark equal to roughly 20% of a defined fully diluted share count.The company’s capital needs changed dramatically when Chief Executive Simon Gerovich pivoted Metaplanet to a Bitcoin treasury model in April 2024. Metaplanet repeatedly tapped equity markets to fund purchases that eventually built its treasury to 43,000 BTC.Issued shares climbed from approximately 153.9 million around the start of the...