The largest investment bank in Japan, Nomura, is set to establish a new subsidiary company to help institutional clients invest in cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that people with knowledge of Nomura’s plans said the firm will bring together several crypto services under one single company with a staff of about 100 people by 2023. Nomura is one of Japan’s ten largest banks, with $569 billion in assets under management as of Q1 2022. Nikkei Asia, a Japanese news outlet, reported that the subsidiary company will be established abroad, but the board will start …

Bitcoin (BTC) made a fresh bid to crack $40,000 on April 28 as Wall Street trading opened to twenty-year highs for U.S. dollar strength. DXY now in "parabolic rally" Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting a high of $39,883 on Bitstamp before momentum waned, sending the pair $800 lower hours later. Traders had predicted what they saw as a relief bounce, with the implication that the subsequent rejection would spark continuation of the downtrend. On the day, caution was advised. "BTC currently consolidating in this falling wedge. In case of a breakout, I'd be targetting $42 …

Japan’s largest social media app, Line has officially launched its own non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace called LINE NFT. Partnering with Yoshimoto Kogyo, a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate — the LVC Corporation, Line’s crypto and blockchain manager — will offer approximately 40,000 different NFTs to its 90 million users. The first wave of soon-to-be-released NFTs will include videos from the company’s in-house, Yoshimoto NFT Theatre, as well depictions of characters from well-known anime series, Patlabor the Mobile Police, with more to come on offer in the coming months. Also NFTs from the iconic anime series Patlabor the Mobile Police, and NFTs …

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has said that its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the digital yen, will not be used to help attain negative interest rates. The BoJ’s Executive Director, Shinichi Uchida made the announcement in his most recent public speech. “While the idea of using such a functionality as a means to achieve a negative interest rate is sometimes discussed in academia, the Bank will not introduce CBDC on this ground.” Japan initially adopted negative interest rates in 2016 in an attempt to combat decades of deflation by encouraging borrowing and spending. Negative interest rates are only used …

Japanese gaming giant Sega is looking at integrating cloud technology and NFTs as part of its new “Super Game” project to connect different games to each other. The news has caused a predictable backlash from the crypto-skeptic section of the gaming community, with many people voicing their frustrations at the firm online this week. The Super Game initiative is set to roll out over the next five years and will reportedly see the development of a wide range of new cross-platform triple A grade games. The firm is said to be weighing up an investment of around $800 million into …

Kakao Piccoma, a Japanese digital comics' subscription service and subsidiary of the Korean internet company Kakao, has purchased a 50% controlling stake in the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC). That makes Kakao its largest shareholder and the deal is also expected to help Kakao offer cryptocurrency services on its Piccoma webtoon platform, and expand aggresively into Web3, according to local media reports. Piccoma is the largest webtoon platform in Japan, and in 2021 its app marked $1 billion in consumer spend after six years in the Japanese market. The amount Kakao paid for its stake in the exchange …

In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also known as the UN Refugee Agency, nearly 4 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since bombs began falling and bullets started flying on Feb. 24, with most heading to neighboring Central European countries. At the same time, people around the world have sent over $100 million in crypto donations to support Ukraine, …

A senior official from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has warned G7 nations that a common framework for regulating digital currencies needs to be put in place as quickly as possible. G7 refers to the Group of Seven, an inter-governmental political forum made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The statement comes in response to the continued conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as cryptocurrencies and their potential applications for skirting economic sanctions falls under increasing scrutiny. The head of the BOJ's payment systems department, Kazushige Kamiyama, told Reuters that using stablecoins makes …

The former chief executive officer of now defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox has announced that certain users will be eligible to receive commemorative nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. In a Monday announcement on Twitter, Mark Karpelès said that crypto users who were Mt. Gox customers between 2010 and 2014 — during which time the exchange was hacked and subsequently declared bankruptcy — could register to claim a free NFT. According to the CEO, the offer extended to users who claimed losses from the defunct exchange or had a balance. “Mt. Gox customers are early adopters, some of them were on BitcoinTalk …

Japan plans to amend its Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act to bring crypto exchanges under the purview of laws that govern banks, a government official revealed on Monday. The proposed amendment is being carried out to prevent sanctioned countries from taking evasive actions using digital assets. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno in a press conference said that the government is planning to introduce a bill to revise the Foreign exchange laws to include crypto exchanges. Fumio Kishida, the newly elected prime minister of the country, also supported the proposed revision and called for coordinated moves with Western allies to …

Citing compliance with local jurisdictions, crypto exchange Coinbase announced to soon collect additional information from users based in Canada, Singapore and Japan. Effective from April 1, Coinbase users from Canada, Singapore and Japan will be required to provide additional information while sending cryptocurrencies to a different (non-Coinbase) platform. However, while Singaporean and Japanese investors will be required to share additional information about the recipient for every single off-platform transaction, Canadians sending less than $801 (1,000 CAD) will be exempted from this requirement. As shown in the above screenshot, Canadian users will need to share the full name and residential address …

Coincheck Inc., a Japan-based crypto exchange with over 1.5 million verified customers, is eyeing Nasdaq listing after a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger with Thunder Bridge Capital Partners IV, Inc. The combined holding company would be called Coincheck Group, N.V and is expected to list on Nasdaq after finalization of the deal by the second quarter of 2022 with a ticker symbol “CNCK.” SPACs are publicly traded corporations that do not conduct business. They sell their stock to the public in order to obtain funding for the future acquisition of a private company. The value of the merger deal …