Metaplanet board defends controversial executive equity scheme
Metaplanet’s independent directors defended a management stock-option plan granting CEO Simon Gerovich and four employees rights to buy 188.2 million shares at 10 yen each, far below the roughly 286-yen market price. They said executives bought the rights during the company’s financial crisis, before its Bitcoin pivot, and that the plan rewarded risk-taking. After shareholder backlash, the company cut the pool by 41%, ended automatic increases tied to new share issuance and imposed staggered exercise limits through 2031. Metaplanet said the changes improved fully diluted Bitcoin per share by about 8.8%. Questions remain about 64 million shares Gerovich exercised before the reset and his economic interest in shareholder MMXX Ventures, which sold Metaplanet shares while the company raised capital.
