VanEck has assigned a 'Bad' rating to Metaplanet's executive compensation structure, marking it as the lowest among the 10 largest digital asset treasury companies. The asset manager highlighted that Metaplanet's equity plan represents 14.7% of fully diluted shares, with officer exposure reaching 8.2%.
These figures significantly exceed industry averages. Metaplanet's officer exposure is approximately 10 times higher than the 0.8% average of its peers, while its equity plan is nearly four times the average. For comparison, MicroStrategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, maintains an equity plan of 2% and officer exposure of 0.5%.
The disparity originated from a previous mechanism that automatically expanded the company's option pool as it issued shares to fund Bitcoin acquisitions. This process increased the pool from 46 million to 319.5 million shares, resulting in an addition of roughly 273 million potential shares.
Although Metaplanet terminated the automatic adjustment in August and reduced its share pool by 41% in September—from 319.5 million to 188.2 million—VanEck maintains that these measures are insufficient. The firm currently holds 43,000 BTC and ranks as the third-largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder.
VanEck recommends that Metaplanet reverse the 273 million-share expansion and implement a shareholder-approved compensation plan. Additionally, the report suggests linking executive pay to Bitcoin holdings per fully diluted share and establishing a formal policy for the timing of equity grants.
