VanEck flags Metaplanet as ‘Bad’ – Calls its executive pay a ‘shareholder trap’

VanEck, a global investment management firm, examined executive compensation across the 10 largest Digital Asset Treasury companies (DATs) and marked Metaplanet as “Bad” on executive compensation practices. 

According to VanEck’s report, Metaplanet’s executive compensation adds to shareholder dilution. Hence, its 14.7% option pool represents potential dilution on a fully diluted basis. This happens along with the firm’s officer exposure reaching 8.2% and its largest individual officer position sitting at 3.8%.

Other DATs and their positioning 

By comparison, Strategy, BitMine, Hyperliquid Strategies, Sharplink, Tron, and Bit Digital were given the “Good” band. This was because of fixed pools, shareholder approval required for increases, and officer exposure of 1% or less.

For context, Strategy has a fixed 8.35 million-share pool, which is about 2% of fully diluted shares, with executive exposure of 0.5%. On the other hand, BitMine’s pool is 3.2%, with officer exposure around 1%.

Whereas Twenty One Capital, Strive, and Forward Industries were placed in the “Acceptable” category due to weaker safeguards.

Why did Metaplanet lose the DAT game?

Speaking of Metaplanet, aka Japan’s MicroStrategy, its structure originated when Metaplanet was a struggling hotel operator and was designed to protect executive compensation from dilution.