What risks are hidden behind Metaplanet's income source from option premiums?

Japan's MicroStrategy Metaplanet announced its latest financial report, with revenue for Q3 2025 reaching 2.4 billion yen, a growth of 94% from the previous quarter. This was mainly achieved through cash-backed Bitcoin (sell put options) to generate sustainable income, while also increasing the number of Bitcoin held long-term.

(Metaplanet's revenue soared by 94% in the third quarter, with Bitcoin options becoming the main revenue engine)

According to its official website announcement, Metaplanet has not bought Bitcoin since 9/30, and after becoming the world's second publicly listed company to fully adopt the Bitcoin standard in April 2024, it has purchased 30,823 Bitcoins at an average cost of $107,911! What is puzzling is that, as an early investor, Metaplanet started buying when Bitcoin was still at $60,000, so why is the buying cost so high? What secrets are there that cannot be disclosed?

How to execute Metaplanet option strategy?

Metaplanet generates passive income by selling Bitcoin put options (Put Option), referred to in its financial report as “Bitcoin Revenue Generation Business.” This is a derivative product operation model that promises to buy Bitcoin at a specific price on a future expiration date, using cash as collateral to ensure there are sufficient funds to purchase BTC when the contract is executed. We explain below and set the strike price (red dotted line) at 120K, with the break-even price (green dotted line) at 119K.

If at expiration, the Bitcoin price is above 120K, then this transaction will not be executed, and the company will take the premium from the green area (Premium).

If at maturity, the price of Bitcoin is below 120K, the company is forced to buy Bitcoin at the price of 120K, but due to the income from the premium, and assuming the breakeven price is 119K.

The price of Bitcoin is between 119K and 120K, and the company buying at the execution price is still more cost-effective than buying directly at the current price.

If the price of Bitcoin falls below 119K, it faces losses, as buying directly at the current price is cheaper.

However, the financial report will only recognize royalty income and does not disclose the risks and losses during the decline of Bitcoin. After all, the basic principle of options is: the seller has limited profits but unlimited risks.

The cost of buying Bitcoin on Metaplanet is relatively high!

Metaplanet has not disclosed details such as the strike price and expiration date of the options, which means that investors cannot assess the price risk range that the company is undertaking. Will the company use a higher strike price to exchange for higher premium income to beautify its financial reports?

To verify our thoughts, the author downloaded the data of each coin purchase from the Metaplanet official website starting from June of this year (, and calculated the minimum, maximum closing price, and average price of Bitcoin during each announced coin purchase period as shown in the table below ), based on the daily closing price of Bitcoin provided by Metaplanet (, with the price location for purchasing Bitcoin during that period marked with an asterisk.

As shown in the table below, the majority of the costs for Metaplanet's purchases are between the average price and the highest price, indicating that the buying costs are relatively high. In fact, there are 2 instances of ) marked with a red asterisk where the purchase cost exceeds the highest closing price!

Original data source: company official website, compiled and statistically analyzed by Chain News. How does Metaplanet beautify its financial reports through royalties?

Let's take the quotes from Deribit, the largest options exchange for Bitcoin, as an example,

Bitcoin spot price: 96,152 USD

Bitcoin futures price: $97,649, representing the market's expectation of the Bitcoin price on the expiration date.

Expiration Date: March 27, 2026

Strike Price: 100,000 USD

Premium income ( at 1 Bitcoin per unit ): 12,196 USD

After executing this transaction, Metaplanet can recognize a “Bitcoin generation revenue” of $12,196. By the maturity date:

The price of Bitcoin remains above 100,000 USD, trades are not executed, and Metaplanet receives royalties as income.

The price of Bitcoin fell below 100,000 USD, and Metaplanet was forced to buy Bitcoin at the price of 100,000 USD, while the market price at that time might have only been 90,000 USD!

If Metaplanet wants to increase its revenue, it only needs to slightly raise the execution price of Bitcoin, for example, setting the price at 105K would yield a premium of 15,173 USD. If the execution price is raised to 110K, it would obtain a premium of 18,534 USD.

This method allows companies to manipulate financial report figures at will, but as the generation of Bitcoin profits increases, will it force companies to buy Bitcoin at a higher price? Investors will have no way to verify.

The Illusion of High Dividends: Chronic Consumption of Principal?

This reminds the author of the recent rise of the high-dividend ETF “MSTY” among Generation Z in the United States, which features the Bitcoin reserve strategy pioneered by MicroStrategy as its main product. By relying on an “options income strategy” and using MicroStrategy stock (MSTR) as the underlying asset, it attracts investors seeking high cash flow. Since MicroStrategy holds a large amount of Bitcoin, MSTY indirectly becomes a “Bitcoin volatility arbitrage tool,” with the fund collecting premiums by selling covered calls and converting the earnings into monthly dividends. As of August 2025, MSTY boasts an annualized yield of up to 154%, but its strategy also means sacrificing the potential upside of MSTR and bearing the risks of volatility and principal decline.

( A new type of FIRE movement is on the rise, featuring the micro-strategy MSTY, sparking a wave of high-dividend ETFs in the U.S. )

Taiwanese investors love high-dividend ETFs, many of which rely on selling stocks for capital gains as a source of dividends ( known as capital equalization fund ), with the income source not coming from the actual dividends of the constituent stocks.

This misunderstanding of current dividends as long-term wealth creates a sense of security in stable passive income, but overlooks that high yield rates often come at the cost of sacrificing price returns and overall portfolio growth, which often turns into a kind of illusion. Moreover, the more complex the product, the more it hides devilish details; products that may erode the “principal” are more like boiling a frog in warm water, causing investors to lose vigilance.

Of course, those who advocate for such investments do not think so. Breece, the founder of Dividendology, believes that having a stable stream of dividends is not just income, but a form of empowerment. It is a way to regain control of time, take charge of the situation, and feel a greater sense of freedom, even if retirement seems far away. This is a common thought in the recently emerged FIRE ( movement in the United States, which stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early ).

Ultimately, which investment method is more suitable for oneself depends on individual circumstances and choices.

What crisis is hidden in this article Metaplanet relying on options premiums as a source of income? First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.