Simon Gerovich, CEO of bitcoin $BTC$78,953.70 treasury company Metaplanet (3350), responded to criticism surrounding the company’s executive compensation plan and his role in MMXX Ventures, a shareholder in the company.
In a post on X on Sunday, Gerovich acknowledged that Tokyo-based Metaplanet “had not done a good enough job” of explaining the equity remuneration arrangement known as Series 10 Stock Acquisition Rights. He also described himself as a “significant but non-majority shareholder” of MMXX’s parent company and said he played no role in the firm’s trading decisions while Metaplanet investors called for greater transparency.
The controversy dates back to December 2022, before Metaplanet adopted its bitcoin treasury strategy, when the company established the stock rights plan. Instead of granting executives a fixed number of shares, it set a reward pool of 20% of Metaplanet’s fully diluted share capital.
After the company’s pivot to buying bitcoin in April 2024, that meant every time Metaplanet sold new equity to add to its holdings, existing shareholders were diluted, while Gerovich’s option entitlement increased.
In August, Metaplanet abandoned the linked reward-pool increase and froze the number of reward shares available at around 320 million. What it didn’t do was roll back the reward pool to where it stood at the time of the bitcoin pivot. The actions highlighted the reward plan and generated online criticism.
“The fix in August was a step in the right direction,” wrote one shareholder pseudonomously known as The Bitcoin Pharaoh on X. “But ‘we can do better’ is a promise about the future, and the questions above are about what already happened. Answer them, name the owners of MMXX, and unwind the pool to where it stood at the pivot.”
Another, identified as Ragnar, posted: “Conclusion: There is no choice but to cancel the additional 273 million shares and replace them with a new incentive program applied retroactively.”MMXX made a series of documented on-market share sales in the months following the bitcoin treasury announcement.
According to a The $BTC Pharaoh, it sold some 50 million shares into the 2024 rally while Metaplanet was simultaneously raising equity from the public.
While Metaplanet has disclosed Gerovich’s voting control over MMXX, it has not publicly detailed the extent to which he personally benefited economically from the entity’s share sales.