weekly
Welcome to the ninety-sixth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Here is what we are going to cover this week: * Venture Capital & Private Markets: JAL & Hitachi participate in BeZero Carbon's USD 32m Series C; Z Venture Capital & Decima Fund participate in Vivident's seed
venture capital
Pacific Meta is a Tokyo-based company that provides end-to-end support as a “Web3 Accelerator” for Web3 projects both domestically and internationally. Pacific Meta supports companies and projects challenging the Web3 space by leveraging their specialized expertise in Web3 to offer assistance in fundraising, consulting, business development, and marketing. Additionally, they
payments
The Financial System Council's Working Group on Payment Services has published its key findings and recommendations today. The report addresses emerging issues in the Japanese FinTech landscape, focusing on payment and settlement services, crypto-assets, stablecoins, and other related topics. It proposes several regulatory adjustments to balance innovation with
NFT
NTT Digital has launched the “Hapiwell Ouendan (Happy & Wellness Cheering Team)” campaign in collaboration with 22 partner companies. Themed “Happy & Wellness,” this campaign is led by Sanrio’s popular unit “HAPIDANBUI” as the cheer captain, with participating companies joining as cheering team members to make the campaign more
blockchain
Kaia has integrated Fireblocks, an enterprise platform to manage digital asset operations and build innovative businesses on blockchain. The collaboration enables institutions to securely manage and transfer assets on the Kaia blockchain network, offering enhanced capabilities in tokenization, DeFi, and blockchain-based financial products. Fireblocks brings improved operational efficiency, reduced asset
crypto
Metaplanet's positioning as the "Japanese MicroStrategy" is quite well understood at this point. CEO Simon Gerovich laid out their strategy very clearly during the WebX 2024 conference: Enter Remixpoint, a new player who has been actively investing in cryptocurrencies. The company initially invested 5 billion yen
blockchain
The three blockchain-related companies under Sony Group, Sony Block Solutions Labs, S.BLOX, and SNFT, have announced the launch of the "Soneium" mainnet, along with an updated version of cryptoasset exchange services and an NFT issuance platform. As creators' activities diversify in the future, content on Web3
CBDC
Waseda University released the fifth episode of its English language podcast series “Rigorous Research, Real Impact”, covering “Central Bank Digital Currencies from a Japanese Legal Perspective”. In the following, we have summarized Professor Takashi Kubota's insights on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), focusing on the legal implications and
crypto
Binance Japan will begin handling three new cryptocurrencies for spot trading: * Pepe (PEPE) * Launch date: January 9, 2025 * Trading pair: PEPE/JPY * Network: Ethereum * Simple Earn: No * SEI (SEI) * Launch date: January 16, 2025 * Trading pairs: SEI/JPY, SEI/BTC, SEI/BNB * Network: SEI, SEIEVM * Simple Earn: Yes * IOTX (IOTX)
payments
On December 24, 2024, the 7th meeting of the Financial System Council's Working Group on Payment Services was held, reviewing a draft of the working group's report to be published in 2025. As background, the "Grand Design and Action Plan for New Capitalism" (Cabinet
cryptocurrency exchange
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, and National Police Agency of Japan are alerting the public to the theft of cryptocurrency worth $308 million U.S. dollars from the Japan-based cryptocurrency company DMM by North Korean cyber actors in May 2024. The theft is affiliated
weekly
Welcome to the ninety-first edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. The Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan meetings dominated this week. With the former a little more hawkish, and the latter a little more dovish than expected, the Japanese Yen has found itself close to the 160 JPY/USD territory