Michael Saylor stated that Strategy will not issue preferred shares in Japan in the coming year, and Metaplanet will take the lead in entering the Japanese "digital lending" market.

Michael Saylor recently stated clearly at the Bitcoin MENA Conference that Strategy (MSTR) will not issue perpetual preferred shares (“digital credit”) in Japan within the next 12 months, and said that the “12-month head start” will be left to the Japanese listed company Metaplanet. This move has drawn more attention to Metaplanet’s plans in the Japanese perpetual preferred share market, which has long been inactive; currently, only five companies in Japan are qualified to trade perpetual preferred shares.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich noted that the company plans to enter this market with two new products, “Mercury” and “Mars,” becoming the sixth and seventh companies in Japan to issue perpetual preferred shares. Mercury is positioned as the Japanese version of Strategy STRK, with an annualized yield of 4.9%, denominated in yen and convertible, which is much higher than the generally less than 0.5% return of Japanese bank deposits and money market funds. Mercury is currently in the pre-IPO stage and aims to go public in early 2026. The second product, Mars, is modeled after Strategy’s short-term high-yield credit product STRC and is targeted more toward investors seeking short-term returns.

Currently, Strategy is accelerating the expansion of its perpetual preferred share system, having issued four perpetual preferred shares in the United States and launched its first overseas product, STRM (denominated in euros). However, Japanese regulations do not allow the ATM (at-the-market) model commonly used by Strategy, so Metaplanet is adopting an alternative mechanism, the “mobile subscription warrant (MSW),” to achieve a similar effect, and plans to fully implement this in its perpetual preferred share offerings.

Regarding whether more Bitcoin treasury companies should join the ranks of “digital credit” issuers in the future, Saylor believes the market should encourage a hundred flowers to bloom, and expects to see a dozen issuers in the future. Gerovich emphasizes that the key is not the number, but the quality of the balance sheet, and states that Metaplanet will focus on the Japanese market first and consider expanding to Asia as development progresses. (CoinDesk)