Bitcoin's time has come in Asia — especially with a regulatory landscape that is changing across the region — and its people and companies should take advantage of the moment.

That was the message Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich delivered on Friday at this year's Bitcoin Asia conference, where he described how his company went from failing to the third-biggest bitcoin treasury in the world.

Bitcoin Asia, organized by Bitcoin Magazine, kicked off on Thursday in Hong Kong, bringing the biggest names in the space to the city to talk about everything from treasury companies to building apps from scratch. The host city itself illustrates the shift Gerovich described: Hong Kong began licensing virtual asset trading platforms in 2023, approved spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds in 2024, and brought its first stablecoin law into force in August 2025 as part of a broader push to re-establish itself as a digital-asset hub.

During the conference, Gerovich also commented on where Bitcoin's price stands:

JUST IN: Japanese public company Metaplanet CEO says the bottom for Bitcoin's price is in "The buyers arriving now aren't going anywhere. I believe the bottom is in. And I'm expecting a much brighter rest of the year." pic.twitter.com/zz0RUxspSz

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) August 28, 2026

"The previous cycles belonged to the West, and the first Asian cycle has already started," Gerovich said. "The only question left is who builds it. Will you?"

Often dubbed Asia's answer to Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin treasury company Strategy — the firm that renamed itself from MicroStrategy in 2025 and holds more than 600,000 BTC as the largest corporate bitcoin holder — Metaplanet pivoted from its core hotel and technology business to buying Bitcoin in 2024. The Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed company now holds 43,000 bitcoins worth about $3.3 billion at current prices, and has said it aims to reach 210,000 BTC, roughly 1% of all the bitcoin that will ever exist, by the end of 2027 — a target that makes its buying pace one of the main things to watch in Asian markets.

Gerovich said in his speech that his company was small and going nowhere fast until it started putting bitcoin on its balance sheet, essentially allowing investors to buy exposure to the biggest digital coin via its regulated shares. The strategy, funded largely through repeated bond and warrant sales, made Metaplanet one of Japan's best-performing stocks in 2024.

He called the approach a major opportunity for Asian companies, which can now capitalize on the changing regulatory landscape and the growing interest in Bitcoin. Asian nations, including Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, are making regulatory changes to support digital assets: Japan's Financial Services Agency has been working on rules that would regulate crypto under the country's financial-instruments law, the statute that governs securities, while Singapore licenses digital-asset businesses under its Payment Services Act.

Gerovich noted that Japan in particular is a country where its citizens have saved like no other part of the world — and that capital can now be put to good use. The backdrop for that argument has shifted in recent years: after decades of near-zero interest rates, the Bank of Japan ended its negative-rate policy in March 2024 and has raised rates since, while inflation has run above its 2% target.

"Hoarding cash has stopped making sense, and every household in Japan can now feel it," he said.

"Japanese households hold roughly 14 trillion dollars in financial assets. About half of that sits in bank deposits, earning almost nothing, and that's just Japan, add Korea, Southeast Asia, and the wealth managed out of this place, Hong Kong, and you're looking at the deepest pools of patient savings on Earth."

"And for the first time in a generation, these savings are looking for somewhere to go."

Gerovich added that Asian companies, institutions, and savers should take advantage of the current market conditions and build the Bitcoin infrastructure in their own regions.

"The end of the cash hoarding strategy and new rules are arriving at exactly the same time, and together, they set up what I think is the single biggest opportunity in Asian markets today," he said.

This article, written by Mathew Di Salvo, first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.