Japan's DAT Companies Shift from Expansion to Selection: Convano's ¥8.77bn Full Liquidation Marks the Turning Point

What a "Complete Exit" Actually Looks Like

Convano Inc. (TSE Growth, ticker 6574, operator of the FASTNAIL nail salon chain) resolved at an extraordinary board meeting on July 24, 2026 to sell all digital assets held by the group. The scope covers the full holding regardless of asset type, with the sole exclusion being the portion allocated to gifts under the shareholder benefit programme. As of March 31, 2026, the consolidated book value stood at ¥8,766,742 thousand (approximately ¥8.77 billion). The company aims to complete the sale within roughly three months of the resolution, judging market liquidity and price trends, and may execute in multiple tranches. It states the purpose plainly: to contain the financial impact of price volatility and to stabilise its financial position while improving capital efficiency. Proceeds are under consideration for investment in higher-growth, higher-margin businesses and for shareholder returns. Because the assets were already marked to market at the previous fiscal year-end, the company expects the additional impact of execution on current-period earnings to be minimal.

A Financial Strategy Reversed in Barely a Year

Convano formally launched its treasury strategy with a board resolution to purchase bitcoin in August 2025. It added roughly ¥1.5 billion worth between September 29 and 30 of that year, bringing cumulative acquisition cost to approximately ¥10.4 billion for 605.75 BTC. By November 2025, however, the company announced a restructuring of its business and financial strategy, halting fundraising via share subscription rights and moving to reduce its BTC dependence. At that stage it still intended to retain a limited position. The latest decision goes considerably further. On media-compiled figures, its most recent holding stood at approximately 763 BTC, ranking fifth among Japanese listed companies.

The Structure of Japan's DAT Sector: Concentration at the Top, Fragility Below

As of the end of April 2026, 19 Japanese listed companies held a combined 46,404 BTC, valued at approximately ¥562.8 billion. Metaplanet accounted for the overwhelming majority at 40,177 BTC, followed by Nexon at 1,717 BTC, Remixpoint at 1,491 BTC, ANAP Holdings at 1,432 BTC and Convano at 763 BTC. Metaplanet subsequently acquired an additional 2,823 BTC for ¥35.886 billion in the second quarter of its fiscal year ending December 2026, lifting holdings to 43,000 BTC and securing third place globally among listed corporates, just 514 BTC behind second. Yet its mNAV, the ratio of market capitalisation to the value of digital assets held, stood at 0.68x as of July 6, below parity, which effectively disables the equity-issuance engine that funded further accumulation. Meanwhile its bitcoin income business booked ¥4.717 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, evidence of a pivot from holding toward operating.

Institutional Ground Shifting Beneath the Sector

On July 15, 2026, the amended Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, which positions digital assets as financial instruments, passed the plenary session of the House of Councillors. Regulation of digital assets moves from the Payment Services Act to the FIEA, with enforcement scheduled within one year of promulgation, implying the new regime takes effect during 2027. In parallel, the Tokyo Stock Exchange is considering a mechanism to re-examine listing eligibility for companies that abruptly change their business model after listing. The reference point is the NYSE's July 2024 amendment to its Listed Company Manual, which added changes in primary business focus to its delisting criteria. The objective is to prevent what amounts to backdoor listing. A Nomura Research Institute column, citing research by Diamond Online, notes that of 30 listed companies that disclosed bitcoin purchases or holdings after Metaplanet, 19 carried a going-concern note or a disclosure of material events in their securities reports. Regulatory pressure is now being applied directly to the pattern of masking a weak core business with digital assets.

Contraction and Pivot Are Global, Not Local

On July 23, Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, classified DAT companies that have abandoned or scaled back accumulation into three categories: full liquidation and complete exit, partial or continuous selling, and reduced accumulation with a shift to active management. Satsuma Technology of the UK secured over 90% shareholder approval on July 21 to liquidate all 668 BTC, return capital to investors and delist. Bitdeer and Prenetics sold their entire bitcoin holdings and pivoted toward AI data centres. Ark Invest, in its July 17 quarterly report, judged that the capitulation phase is in its later stages while warning that rising funding costs for bitcoin DAT companies threaten a core pillar of demand. Convano's decision is not a Japan-specific event but one facet of a simultaneous global restructuring.

Business Development Insights

1. The axis of competition has moved from holding volume to operating yield. Metaplanet's bitcoin income business generated ¥4.717 billion in the first half of 2026, and Remixpoint secures returns through staking and lending. Once passive holding can no longer sustain a share-price premium, demand migrates toward B2B services that monetise and manage held assets: custody, options execution, lending and borrowing, and accounting and tax practice geared to fair-value measurement. Few domestic providers currently cover this ground, leaving meaningful room for entry.
2. Exit design is a blank space in Japan's service landscape. Disposing of roughly ¥8.8 billion within three months while containing price impact is far from trivial. Very few players can support the full chain: OTC execution, algorithmic tranche selling, timing of timely disclosure, and the accounting and tax treatment of realised gains and losses. Domestic services have skewed heavily toward the entry side of purchase and custody support. As the contraction phase gathers pace, a packaged exit-execution offering becomes a genuine differentiator.
3. Positioning ahead of the regulatory transition will separate winners from losers. The FIEA-based regime expected in 2027, combined with the TSE's proposed review of business-model conversions, will tighten scrutiny of companies that merely hold digital assets while sharpening the profile of those that earn from or transact in them. Partnerships anchored in real operations, such as stablecoin settlement, tokenisation, and the convergence of mining with renewable energy, will find it easier to win capital-market recognition. When evaluating collaboration with a DAT company, the first screening criterion should be the presence of a revenue-generating business built on the held assets, not the size of the holding itself.

Sources

1. CoinPost, "Convano to Sell Entire ¥8.7bn Digital Asset Holding" https://coinpost.jp/?p=727152
2. PR TIMES / Convano Inc., "Convano Resolves Policy to Sell Held Digital Assets" https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000159.000006824.html
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10. Nomura Research Institute / Sadakazu Osaki, "Digital Asset Treasury Companies and Delisting Criteria" https://www.nri.com/jp/media/column/osaki/20260203.html
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