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,
web3
A focused finance session in Osaka followed by two main conference days in Tokyo—this was my firsthand experience at WebX 2025. I have combined on-site observations, in-depth conversations, trend insights, and policy interpretations to offer those who could not attend a more vivid and complete sense of being there—
digital assets
SBI Group and Chainlink, the industry-standard oracle platform, have announced a strategic partnership focused on accelerating blockchain and digital asset adoption across global markets. Japan's sophisticated financial market and rapidly evolving digital asset ecosystem provide an ideal environment to launch and validate initial use cases. This strategic collaboration
crypto
Splendid experience to moderate the panel on Crypto ETFs at the WebX FinTech Expo in Osaka on Friday, sharing the stage with Takashi Takamura, Country Head at Franklin Templeton Japan, Tomoya Asakura, Chief Executive Officer at SBI Global Asset Management, and Eugene Cheung, Chief Commercial Officer at OSL, covering the
venture capital
DigiFT, a licensed exchange purpose-built for institutional-grade, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), has raised a total of US$25 million to date—following the close of a new strategic funding round. The latest round was led by SBI Holdings, Japan’s largest financial group, with participation from leading institutional investors including
venture capital
Mesh, the leading crypto payments network, today announced additional investments from PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Uphold, Mirana Ventures (venture partner for ByBit), SBI Investment, Overlook Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Moderne Ventures and CE-Ventures, bringing total capital funding to more than $130 million. This support positions the company to accelerate its impact
crypto
Just like for this fiscal year (see link at the bottom), the Japan Cryptoasset Business Association (JCBA), jointly with the Japan Virtual and Crypto assets Exchange Association (JVCEA), has compiled a tax reform request for cryptoassets for FY2026 and submitted it to the government. Purpose of This Request Web3.0
credit card
Aplus, a member of the SBI Shinsei Bank Group, and SBI VC Trade, a consolidated subsidiary of SBI Holdings engaged in the cryptocurrency exchange business, have collaborated to add Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP handled by SBI VC Trade as exchange rewards for the point service (Aplus Points) of
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred eighteenth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. We are going to be a bit policy- and white paper-heavy this week. From a macro perspective, we have included the government's "Grand Design and Action Plan for a New Form of Capitalism, 2025 Revised
crypto
The 55th General Meeting of the Financial System Council and the 43rd Joint Meeting of the Financial System Subcommittee, jointly held on Wednesday, June 25, reviewed the current status of and the regulatory framework for crypto assets in Japan. The regulatory approach aims to balance user protection with innovation promotion,
crypto
The Japan Cryptoasset Business Association (JCBA) has presented its business report for Fiscal Year 2024 (from April 2024 to March 2025), a period marked by significant transformation and strategic advancement for both the global and domestic digital asset industries. The report (in Japanese) details the association's extensive activities
payment
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of Kadmos Holding GmbH (Kadmos), a global end-to-end maritime salary payments platform provider headquartered in Germany. Founded in 2021 and based in Berlin and London, Kadmos is a rapidly growing technology company that provides innovative salary payment solutions