Metaplanet, a Japanese investment firm's Bitcoin premium has reached almost $600,000 per coin, as leading Asia's Bitcoin treasury firm pushes forward with its plan to purchase 21,000 BTC by 2026.
According to a report published on May 27 by 10x Research, Metaplanet's stockholders are paying more than a fivefold premium on Bitcoin BTC$109,494 when investing in the Japanese company.
"A little-known Japanese stock trades as if Bitcoin were worth $596,154, more than five times its actual price," the report states.
Investors who don't understand the importance of a firm's net asset value (NAV) may be "dramatically overpaying for their Bitcoin exposure" on a position that doesn't provide additional upside leverage, the report adds.
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The NAV represents the per-unit price of a fund, calculated by dividing the fund's total assets minus its liabilities by the number of outstanding shares.
According to Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream and the inventor of Hashcash, despite the significant premium, Bitcoin treasury firms like Metaplanet and Strategy are important for Bitcoin's mass adoption as entities that are front-running "global hyperbitcoinisation," a potential $200 trillion market opportunity.
Crypto industry urges SEC to clarify staking stance
According to Allison Muehr, head of staking policy for the Crypto Council for Innovation, a trade group, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is being urged by the Cryptocurrency industry groups to issue a formal guidance on staking, citing continued regulatory uncertainty for Web3 infrastructure providers.
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During Solana's Accelerate conference in New York, Muehr said clarifying the SEC's position on staking has become a top priority for the crypto industry.
"We're about 25% of the way there," Muehr said. "The SEC has done more constructive engagement with us in the past four months than in the last four years, but we still don't have formal staking guidance."
According to Cointelegraph, under the previous US presidential administration, SEC brought enforcement actions against several crypto firms for offering staking services it alleged were unregistered securities offerings.
Since President Donald Trump's charge took place in January, the SEC has softened its stance.
The agency is yet to approve staking in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or issue formal guidance on how staking services can be offered compliantly in the US.
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Former CFTC Chair Christopher Giancarlo joins crypto bank Sygnum
The former chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Christopher Giancarlo, has joined Sygnum in an advisory role, where he will help the crypto bank navigate global regulations amid growing institutional interest in digital assets.
On May 27, Sygnum announced that Giancarlo had been appointed as a senior policy adviser, joining 11 other members of the Advisory Council.
Giancarlo will provide strategic partnerships and regulatory advice to the public and private sectors as part of his job.
A Swiss banking organization called Sygnum is committed to offering services for cryptocurrency assets. It is frequently referred to as the first digital asset bank, and it recently became a unicorn after raising $58 million.
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He is joining Sygnum at a time when the global digital asset market is approaching a turning point in institutional adoption, according to Giancarlo, who led the CFTC from 2017 to 2019.
