Topic: [2017-02-14] Japan’s 3Megabanks Have All Invested in Japan’s Biggest BitcoinExch (Read 456 times)

It does make a little bit of sense that Japan is going to start getting serious with Blockchain research + Bitcoin exchange research as well since they are doing the Digital Payment System before the 2021 Olympic's (they might be trying to gear up for the announcement for that).

You could read about it at PCMag:

Instead of an IP address they are working on figerprints as an identity thing plus a form of money seperation between the citizens of the world.

If you haven't noticed already, the end of an era is getting more visible to people who try to hide the obvious.

Six hundred threescore and six.

This is huge news! This means the banks see future for Bitcoin. This is maybe the best news of the Year for Bitcoin

Bitcoin from birth, has experienced too many groundless talk, but thankfully, bitcoin users growing confidence. And every time the Chinese ban bitcoin news, the impact on the market is getting smaller and smaller. Now, Japan's bitcoin trading volume has exceeded China, accounting for 20% of global trading volume, which is an exciting news. Bitcoin is ultimately belong to the entire Internet and the whole human, technological progress is not a country or organization can be blocked.

Interesting that despite knowing how Japanese BitLicense will be really harsh, banks are still not afraid to put money on the line, and invest in cryptocurrency projects.
Which leads me to belie that Japanese society and business is used to being regulated on the most basic level.
Bitcoin is currently sitting at $1005 - we had a 0.93% price increase since yesterday - maybe it is reaction to this positive news?

This is good news for bitcoin in the future, because now many developed countries legalize bitcoin as a valid means of payment.

Japan has always been a leader in creating revolutionary technologies and in adopting the good ones from others. The fact that three of Japan’s biggest banks have now invested in the country’s leading bitcoin exchange only confirms that. Other countries should learn from them or otherwise they might end up stucking in the past.

Less than a year after raising ¥3 billion ($27 million) in a record funding round by a bitcoin and Fintech company in Japan, Tokyo-based bitFlyer now sees all three of Japan’s ‘mega-banks’ as investors in the bitcoin exchange.

In an announcement today, bitFlyer, Japan’s largest bitcoin exchange and blockchain services company, revealed fresh funding from Mizuho Capital and SMBC Venture Capital, both of which are the investment arms of the Mizuho Banking Corporation and the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation respectively. The two banking corporations join Mitsubishi UFJ as investors in bitFlyer. Mitsubishi UFJ Capital participated in a ¥510 million ($4.5 million) round of funding in August 2015.

Altogether, all three of Japan’s megabanks have now invested in the country’s leading bitcoin exchange.

Interest in Bitcoin Grows

Investments and interest in Japan’s burgeoning bitcoin industry have quickly gathered pace in the lead-up to new regulations to be put into effect in June this year.

In March last year, the Japanese cabinet recognized virtual currencies like bitcoin to have the same properties as money as a means of payment and settlement. The Japanese legislature passed the bill to regulate virtual currency exchanges in mid-2016.

In a recent email to CCN, CoinCheck’s business development chief Kagayaki Kawabata credits Japan’s regulatory moves for bitcoin’s booming popularity in the country.

Bitcoin Japan
Japan’s bicameral legislature passed bills to recognize bitcoin as the equivalent of money last year.
With the upcoming regulations, norms that were encouraged by the local bitcoin industry, 2017 is deemed as “the first year for virtual currency” by bitFlyer. ResuPress, the operator of Japanese bitcoin exchange CoinCheck predicts a frenzied growth in bitcoin adoption by storefronts and merchants across the country. By the end of 2016, there were over 4,200 bitcoin-accepting merchants, more than quadrupling the total from 2015. That trend is expected to continue into 2017, with ResuPress estimating that number to quintuple to 20,000 merchants  this year.

In January 2017, bitFlyer laid claim to being the largest bitcoin exchange in the world by volume. The company revealed trading volumes exceeding ¥320 billion ($2.81 billion) with over 400,000 users in the first month of the year.

Bitcoin Company Delivers Technology to Japan’s Biggest Banks

The three megabanks had previously partnered bitFlyer in 2016 to test domestic money transfers over a blockchain, with technology provided by the bitcoin company. The proof-of-concept experiment ran for nine months through September 2016 and clocked 1,500 transactions per second on the blockchain, beating the peak speeds of the existing interbank wire system.

The PoC experiment used bitFlyer’s proprietary blockchain which the exchange refers to as “miyabi.”

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/japanese-megabanks-invest-bitcoin-exchange/