First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Gain Checked by Hints of Further BOJ Rate Rises

Japanese investment adviser Metaplanet, which adopted bitcoin as a reserve asset earlier this year, tapped SBI VC Trade to provide custody services. Crypto exchange SBI VC Trade, a unit of Tokyo-based SBI Holdings, offers the potential to use BTC as collateral for financing, Metaplanet said on Monday. In May, Metaplanet said it was adopting bitcoin as a reserve asset to hedge against the volatility of the yen. As of Aug. 20, it held 360.4 BTC ($21 million). The reserve-asset strategy mimics software developer MicroStrategy, which has been buying bitcoin since 2020 and now holds over 226,000 BTC, more than 1% of all the bitcoin that will ever exist.