Japanese hotel company Metaplanet (3350) has purchased an additional 696 BTC ($58.5 million), taking its total stash to 4,046 BTC.

Metaplanet purchased the bitcoin for an average purchase price of nearly 14.6 million yen ($97,500) for a total spend of 10.15 billion yen.

The company’s total BTC holdings were bought for an average price of around $86,500.57 per coin.

Metaplanet financed its purchases in Q1 through the sale of cash secured BTC put options — futures contracts which bet on the price of the underlying asset going down.

These options were written at the beginning of the quarter, when BTC was scaling all-time highs above $100,000. Metaplanet said it earned 770.3 million yen in revenue using this method.

«Relative to direct spot purchase at that time, the strategy enabled the company to acquire more bitcoin per yen deployed — benefitting from premium income and a reduced effective cost basis,» Metaplanet said in a statement on Tuesday.

Metaplanet’s latest BTC purchase makes it the ninth largest public holder of bitcoin, according to data tracked by Bitcoin Treasuries.

The company’s Tokyo-listed shares closed 2% at 409 yen on Tuesday, comfortably outperforming the Nikkei 225, which was unchanged on the day.

Last month, Ethereum reclaimed its title as the leading smart contract blockchain for decentralized exchange (DEX) trading, as the market swoon dampened activity on Solana, the go-to platform for memecoin traders.

Ethereum-based DEXes registered an industry-leading cumulative trading volume of $64.616 billion in March, beating Solana’s tally of $52.62 billion by 22%, according to data source DefiLama. That’s the first time since September that Ethereum topped the charts, pushing Solana to the number two spot.

The change in leadership happened as the total crypto market capitalization fell 4.2% to $2.63 trillion, extending February’s 20% loss, as macroeconomic uncertainty and disappointment over the lack of fresh BTC purchases in the U.S. strategic reserve saw bitcoin slip below $80,000.

The bearish market sentiment dampened speculation across the broader landscape, especially within the memecoin sector, as reflected in the significant decline in activity on Raydium, the leading Solana-based DEX and a hotspot for meme trading in late 2024.

Throughout March, Raydium did not log a single day with trading volume exceeding $1 billion, highlighting a considerable decrease from its record-high of $13 billion on Jan. 18, DefiLlama data show.

Additionally, daily volume on the Solana-based memecoin launch pad averaged less than $100 million in March, down significantly from the peak of $390 million in mid-January. Activity on Solana-based DEXes peaked with the debut of President Donald Trump’s TRUMP token in January.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s outperformance was driven by Uniswap, which achieved over $30 billion in trading volume, with Fluid taking the distant second spot with $9 billion in activity.

Still, Ethereum’s ether token fell over 18% to $1,822 in March, registering bigger losses than Solana’s SOL token, which fell by 15.8%, per data source TradingView and CoinDesk.

Per observers, ether’s inflationary tokenomics and the growing popularity of Layer 2 solutions, which supposedly siphon activity from the main chain, are responsible for ether’s poor performance.

In all likelihood, the move by the Sei Foundation – the organization behind layer1 blockchain Sei – to buy bankrupt genetic data company 23andMe is a long-shot at best, and potentially just a publicity stunt. But, it remains an incredibly exciting idea that has got a lot of people thinking.

Were such a deal to go through, we would see a Web3 company rescue a Web2 company, which would have enormous ramifications in and of itself. Web2 tech giants are already being challenged in the area of AI by much smaller, nimble, and more flexible companies. However, the purchase of what was once one of Silicon Valley’s shiniest stars by a blockchain upstart would be a total paradigm shift.

Beyond that, a deal would be a win for public understanding for data security and privacy. While we have all been vaguely aware of how Meta, Google, Apple, etc., take and use our data, we have chosen to ignore that for the convenience it affords us.

Then there has perhaps never been such a case as 23andMe, which holds DNA and other data for 15 million people. It shows the public how vulnerable their most personal and intimate data is in the hands of centralized companies and organizations.

It’s one thing when Facebook and Instagram are tracking our shopping and consumer habits and making our sensitive messages and emails vulnerable to leaks. With 23andMe, we’re talking DNA data; the very fabric of our human bodies has just been green-flagged for sale to the highest bidder.

If Sei is not successful, which is most likely, this data can and may well be sold to health or life insurance companies. They may then be able to use this data to potentially exclude people from vital healthcare or insurance policies, thanks to the questionable way in which the U.S. healthcare system is run and its discrimination policies enforced.

Perhaps, finally, this is a turning point at which the public may seriously come to understand the importance of owning their own data. Maybe more people will realize that to keep their data truly safe, they have full control of it themselves through the use of decentralized blockchain technology.

Of course, not every blockchain is created equal. However, Sei certainly claims to be highly secure, and projects like Arweave – which is a permanent storage chain built on a “pay one store forever” model – have applications that can allow you to upload and store your data privately, securely and permanently.

These are two among a growing list of options in our industry, but the point is this: there is simply no centralized solution beyond a piece of paper stored in a Swiss security deposit box with keys buried deep in the ground that can compare. And even then, someone can dig those keys up.

This is a watershed moment for people to understand the importance of data self-sovereignty. And it comes at a time when trust in centralized organizations, companies, and even governments is breaking down. As such, the 23andMe sale could mark a true turning point in history, and one that could reshape how Web3 is seen, understood and utilized.