Meitu’s $80 Million Crypto Exit Looks Different Now

Meitu booked a $79.63 million gain after selling 940 bitcoin and 31,000 ether by December 4, 2024. The Hong Kong-listed selfie-app group took in about $180 million and said it no longer held either coin.

Bitcoin printed above $100,000 in the next sessions. It later set a record high of $126,198, then spent 2026 giving the rally back, while Meitu had already paid most of the profit to shareholders and gone back to selling photo tools.

940 Bitcoin, 31,000 Ether and a $180 Million Exit

Meitu Investment, a British Virgin Islands unit, bought the stack in March and April 2021 for $50.5 million of ether and $49.5 million of bitcoin. The group started selling in November 2024 and, in a Hong Kong filing, said that as of December 4 it had sold all of its acquired cryptocurrencies for about $100 million of ether and $80 million of bitcoin.

The last ticket that day was 15,703.94 ether for $55.49 million and 470.19 bitcoin for $44.85 million, which works out to about $3,534 a coin and $95,387 a coin. November’s tickets were cheaper: 15,296.06 ether for $44.21 million and 469.81 bitcoin for $35.35 million. Blended across both months, Meitu left at about $3,226 per ether and $85,106 per bitcoin.

Under IFRS the tokens sat as intangible assets on the cost model. The filing put the carrying amount at about $100 million, so the $79.63 million gain (RMB 571.0 million) was the gap between cash in and that book value, not a mark-to-market of the 2021 tickets.

THE 2021 BUY AND THE 2024 SALE

Chairman Wu Zeyuan (also known as Wu Xinhong) signed the notice. Settlement was cash against market bid and ask, and the buyers were not named.

Eighty Percent Went out as a Special Dividend

The board did not keep the stack as a reserve. It said the sale was a chance to lock a large gain and to put cash behind paid photo, video and design products, then earmarked about 80% of net proceeds for a one-off dividend from the share premium account.

The Board takes the view that the Cryptocurrencies Disposals provided the Group with a good opportunity to realise a sizable gain on its investments in the Acquired Cryptocurrencies. The Cryptocurrencies Disposals will enhance the overall liquidity of the Group and the Directors intend to apply approximately 80% of the net proceeds from the Cryptocurrencies Disposals for the payment of the Special Dividend and the remaining net proceeds as general working capital to expand the Group’s business focusing on paid subscription-based imaging and design products.

Meitu, Inc. board, Hong Kong exchange filing, December 4, 2024

Shareholders were asked to approve a special dividend of HK$0.109 per share at an extraordinary meeting on February 11, 2025. The vote was 1,998,428,573 in favour and 5,000 against, on 4,558,094,125 shares then in issue, which puts the cash at about HK$496.8 million. The payable date was February 27, 2025.

WHERE THE CASH WAS MEANT TO GO

• Locked gain: The board treated the November-December sales as a chance to take $79.63 million off a $100 million book value.
• Shareholder cheque: About 80% of net proceeds was reserved for the HK$0.109 special dividend paid on February 27, 2025.
• Working capital: The rest was tagged for paid subscription imaging and design products, not for another token purchase.
• Empty wallet: After December 4, 2024, the group held no ether and no bitcoin.

That mix is the whole corporate choice. Meitu took three years of token risk, turned it into cash, and handed the bulk of the profit to the register instead of rolling it into more coins.

Did Meitu Sell Too Early?

On December 4, 2024, bitcoin closed at $98,881. The next day it traded as high as $103,900, and the $100,000 print that had sat just out of reach for weeks finally stuck in the sessions that followed. The first-week headlines wrote themselves: a listed Chinese photo app had dumped 940 coins on the doorstep of a round number.

A widely shared post even tried to hang a 10% flash drop on those 940 coins. The size never fitted. Strategy already held hundreds of thousands of bitcoin; Meitu’s ticket was a rounding error next to that stack, and the move read as a leverage flush of the kind the market has printed many times. The company was not a whale. It was a listed app group taking a side bet off the table.

The early-exit charge still had a window. From the $85,106 blended bitcoin sale, the October 6, 2025 high of $126,198 was a 48% run. Ether, sold at $3,226 blended, later printed $4,954 on August 24, 2025. Hold those exact bags to those separate highs and the 940 bitcoin would have been worth $118.6 million and the 31,000 ether $153.6 million.

The October High That Made the Exit Look Cheap

Those peaks did not last. Bitcoin spent late 2025 and most of 2026 giving back the record, with a deep print near $58,600 in 2026 before a bounce. On September 24, 2026, Coinbase priced bitcoin at $84,470.76, a shade under Meitu’s blended $85,106 sale. Ether closed at $2,687 that day, 17% below the $3,226 blended exit.

WHAT THE SAME BAGS WOULD HAVE BEEN WORTH

The two 2025 highs were not on the same day, so they cannot be added into one portfolio mark. Read column by column. At bitcoin’s October record the 940 coins were worth $38.6 million more than the $80 million Meitu banked. At ether’s August record the 31,000 coins were worth $53.6 million more than the $100 million it banked. By September 24, 2026, the same bitcoin was worth $79.4 million, $0.6 million under the cash taken, and the same ether was worth $83.3 million, $16.7 million under the cash taken.

Twenty-one months after the filing, the “sold the top” line is wrong on bitcoin and still kind on ether. The “sold too early” line was right for about ten months and then went cold. What did not change is that Meitu was out of both trades before either path played out.

Meitu Held Through Crypto Winter Before the Sale

The 2021 tickets were not a quiet cash park. Bitcoin cost about $52,660 a coin; ether cost about $1,629. Those buys, disclosed in notices dated March 7, March 17 and April 8, 2021, put a photo-app issuer on the same page as the first wave of listed token treasuries, and the 2022 crash pushed the position through impairment tests. In 2024 the group reversed RMB 68.1 million of bitcoin impairments, then sold.

THE THREE-YEAR CLOCK

1. March and April 2021: Meitu Investment buys about 31,000 ether for $50.5 million and 940 bitcoin for $49.5 million.
2. 2022: The crash forces impairment tests on both coins under the cost model.
3. 2024: A RMB 68.1 million bitcoin impairment reversal is booked, then sales start in November.
4. December 4, 2024: The last coins go; cash in is about $180 million; gain is $79.63 million.
5. December 5, 2024: Bitcoin trades as high as $103,900, through $100,000.
6. February 11 and 27, 2025: Shareholders pass the HK$0.109 dividend; cash goes out.
7. August 24, 2025: Ether prints $4,954.
8. October 6, 2025: Bitcoin prints $126,198, 306 days after the last sale.
9. September 24, 2026: Coinbase bitcoin is $84,470.76; ether closes at $2,687.

A company that holds through a full drawdown and then sells into a rally has already done the hard part of the trade. The next decision is whether the coins are a reserve or a cheque. Meitu picked the cheque.

Paying Subscribers Reached 18.44 Million After the Sale

The filing’s other claim was that the photo, video and design products, sold mainly on subscriptions, had enough momentum to absorb the cash. The next two report sets are the test of that claim, stripped of token marks.

For 2025, continuing revenue was RMB 3,858.738 million, up 28.8%, and photo, video and design products were RMB 2,954.033 million, up 41.6%, or 76.6% of the book. IFRS net profit attributable to owners fell 12.7% to RMB 697.563 million because 2024 still carried the one-off crypto gain and 2025 carried a one-off non-cash charge on a convertible bond issued to Alibaba Group. On the company’s adjusted measure, which strips those items, adjusted net profit of RMB 965 million was up 64.7% from RMB 586.167 million. Paying subscribers ended 2025 at 16.91 million, up 34.1%, and the subscription rate was 6.1%. Monthly active users were 276 million, including 101 million outside mainland China.

Gary Ngan, chief financial officer and company secretary, tied that year to product work rather than to the old token account.

In 2025, driven by the rapid advancement of AI, we achieved significant breakthroughs in both productivity products and our global expansion strategy.

Gary Ngan, CFO, Meitu 2025 annual results, March 27, 2026

The first half of 2026 kept the same shape. Continuing revenue was RMB 2,212.839 million, up 22.1%. Photo, video and design products were RMB 1,769.111 million, up 30.9%, and 80% of revenue. IFRS net profit attributable to owners was RMB 619.462 million, up 40.0%; adjusted net profit was RMB 652.043 million, up 39.5%. As of June 2026, paying subscribers rose to 18.44 million, up 19.7%, and the subscription rate was 6.5%. Productivity-app monthly active users hit 33 million, up 43.5%, with annual recurring revenue on those tools about RMB 620 million. Global monthly active users were 282 million. Advertising, the old engine, fell 4.4% to RMB 414.656 million, and gross margin slipped to 71.5% from 75.3% as cloud and model costs rose.

THE APP BOOK AFTER THE COINS

• 2025 revenue: RMB 3,858.738 million, up 28.8%, with photo, video and design up 41.6% to RMB 2,954.033 million.
• 2025 profit split: IFRS net profit down 12.7% to RMB 697.563 million on the 2024 crypto-gain base; adjusted net profit up 64.7% to RMB 965.347 million.
• H1 2026 run rate: Revenue RMB 2,212.839 million, up 22.1%; photo RMB 1,769.111 million, up 30.9%; 18.44 million paying subscribers.
• Users: Monthly active users 258 million at June 30, 2024, 276 million at the end of 2025, 282 million in the first half of 2026.

The subscription business the board said it wanted to fund was already growing before the last coin was sold, and it kept growing after. The special dividend did not buy that growth. It distributed a completed trade.

The Share Price Peaked With Bitcoin, Then Slid

Holders who wanted the token exposure had one clean window: own the shares before December 4, 2024, collect HK$0.109 in February 2025, and sit through 2025. The stock closed at HK$4.760 on February 12, 2025, the last cum-dividend session used in warrant math, then ran with the AI-app bid and with bitcoin to a 52-week high of HK$9.56 on October 2, 2025, four days before bitcoin’s $126,198 print. It closed at HK$3.675 on September 25, 2026, 62% below that high.

That path is the shareholder version of the same irony. The dividend was real cash. The 2025 rerating was real on the tape. Neither survived as a lasting mark once the token market and the multiple both compressed. Meitu’s 2025 calendar gain of 144% and its 2026 slide sit on either side of the same October peak that made the crypto sale look cheap.

The group that filed the December 4, 2024 notice is, on its own description, an AI photo, video and design issuer again. It has no bitcoin and no ether, a special dividend already paid, a larger paid-subscriber base, and a share price that followed the coins up and then followed them down.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much bitcoin and ether did Meitu buy in 2021?

Meitu Investment bought about 31,000 ether for $50.5 million and 940 bitcoin for $49.5 million in March and April 2021, or about $1,629 per ether and $52,660 per bitcoin, under a cryptocurrency investment plan disclosed in notices dated March 7, March 17 and April 8, 2021.

When did Meitu finish selling its bitcoin and ether?

Sales ran through November 2024 and finished on December 4, 2024, in two disclosed blocks: 15,296.06 ether and 469.81 bitcoin in November, then 15,703.94 ether and 470.19 bitcoin on December 4, after which the group held none of either coin.

How did Meitu shareholders approve the crypto special dividend?

An extraordinary general meeting on February 11, 2025, passed the HK$0.109 cash dividend from the share premium account by 1,998,428,573 votes to 5,000, with 4,558,094,125 shares then in issue, and the payable date was February 27, 2025.

How did Meitu account for the tokens on its books?

The group booked the coins as intangible assets under IFRS and used the cost model, so gains showed up only on disposal; the December 4, 2024 filing put the carrying amount at about $100 million and the disposal gain at $79.63 million, and 2024 results also recorded a RMB 68.1 million reversal of earlier bitcoin impairments.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of Meitu’s disclosed cryptocurrency purchases, sales, dividend and later financial results, and it is for information only. It is not investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell Meitu shares, bitcoin, ether or any other security or token, and it is not tax or legal advice. Readers who are considering a position in the company or in digital assets should consult a licensed financial adviser and, where relevant, a tax professional who can review their own facts. Figures, prices and holdings are taken from the company filings and market series cited above and can change after those dates.