Japan FinTech Observer | Tontines | ex-Goldman & Barclays Tech MD
cryptocurrency exchange
Coincheck Group, the holding company of Coincheck, one of Japan’s leading crypto asset exchanges, has entered into a stock purchase agreement to acquire Aplo, a digital asset prime brokerage for institutional crypto investors. Pursuant to the agreement, all issued and outstanding shares of Aplo are to be exchanged for
DeFi
At the beginning of August, S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'B-' issuer credit rating to Sky Protocol. The outlook is stable. Subsequently, S&P Global Ratings hosted webinar titled "Understanding Our Credit Approach to Sky," which detailed the methodology and rationale for assigning
venture capital
MUFG Bank and MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP), both consolidated subsidiaries of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), have made an investment in LayerX, a startup focused on equipping society with AI-centered software. MUFG Bank also signed a strategic partnership memorandum of understanding with LayerX to further deepen their collaborative relationship. MUIP’
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred twenty-seventh edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Congratulations to the WebX & Coinpost teams for delivering an outstanding conference! Although SBI took the headlines with a full plate of announcements already on the Friday prior in Osaka, the news flow did not let up. More
BaaS
Minna Bank has signed a business partnership agreement with Merpay to utilize Minna Bank's financial functions and services in the flea market app "Mercari". Background Minna Bank upholds "Integrating into everyone's 'lifestyle'" as one of its service concepts, and aims
trading
Webull Securities, the Japanese division of US-based Webull Corporation (NASDAQ: BULL), began offering its Japanese stock trading API on August 27, 2025. This addition to the existing US stock trading API (Webull OpenAPI) enables API-based trading functionality for Japanese stocks, making Webull the first major domestic online securities firm to
Insurance
The Financial Services Agency published a partial revision (draft) of the "Comprehensive Supervision Guidelines for Insurance Companies" and other documents from Monday, May 12, 2025 to Friday, June 13, 2025, and widely solicited comments. In response, the Agency received a total of 468 comments related to the partial
blockchain
Next Finance Tech has joined the Canton Network, a privacy-friendly open blockchain network governed by over 40 of the world's leading financial institutions and service providers, as a validator (node operator) from August 2025. Currently, there are over 400 ecosystem participants in Canton. Leveraging Next Finance Tech'
insurtech
Shift Technology, a provider of AI-driven decision automation and optimization solutions for the global insurance industry, has recently delivered generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) capabilities as part of their Shift Claims Fraud Detection and Shift Claims Intake deployments for Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance. Shift’s Gen AI-powered visual
venture capital
Tokyo and Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm DNX Ventures has completed the formation of the "4th Japan Annex Fund" with DNX as the general partner, totaling 24.7 billion yen. The 3rd Japan Annex Fund, which announced its final close in 2024, completed its full capital deployment early
artificial intelligence
Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Systems, and Trust have concluded a business partnership agreement aimed at improving system development productivity through the utilization of generative AI. Trust was founded in 2023 and is a startup that provides services to streamline system development using generative AI. According to
crypto
gumi has resolved, at the Board of Directors meeting held on August 28, 2025, to purchase 2.5 billion yen worth of crypto assets (XRP). The purchase(s) will be carried out between September 2025 and February 2026. gumi will conduct a quarterly mark-to-market valuation of its held crypto assets,