bitbank, inc. a crypto asset exchange operator, closed a funding round of 7.5 billion JPY from mixi, Inc. and CERES INC.
bitbank, inc. a crypto asset exchange operator, closed a funding round of 7.5 billion JPY from mixi, Inc. and CERES INC.
We announce that bitbank, inc. (HQ: Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan CEO: Noriyuki Hirosue; hereinafter referred to as the Company) concluded a capital and business alliance agreement with mixi, Inc. (HQ: Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, CEO: Koki Kimura, hereinafter referred to as mixi).
The Company closed a funding round of 7.5 billion JPY in total, mixi completed an equity investment of 7 billion JPY in bitbank, inc. by rights offering and additional investment of 500 million JPY by CERES INC.(HQ: Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan, CEO: Satoshi Takagi, hereinafter referred to as Ceres).
■Background and objectives of the funding
mixi develops hugely popular communication services aimed at many generations, such as the SNS ”mixi” and the smartphone gaming service “Monster Strike”.
They set “enrich global communication by combining entertainment with technology” as their medium-term management policy and deploy business development strategies using advanced technology in many different segments such as sports, lifestyle and digital entertainment.
The synergy effect between crypto asset related advanced technology, which is the strength of the Company, and the user base and the contents of diversified services of mixi will be enormous. After many discussions between the Company and mixi, we reached the conclusion that through building cooperative partnership, we are sure that we are capable of creating new values as never happened before, taking advantage of our strengths and expertises.
With the funding, the Company will strengthen the fiscal consolidation at the aim of the better protection of users’ assets, and will actively invest for the strengthening of the existing business, as well as new business development such as the IEO, staking, custody, the NFT and the L2 payment at the ever growing crypto asset market.
With the rights offering and additional investment, the Company’s cash reserves(including crypto asset) will be approximately 15 billion JPY, the Financial soundness index (equivalent to capital adequacy ratio) based on “Self- Regulatory rule concerning the Payment Services Act” which the JVCEA regulates, will reach 400%.
Major shareholders’ shareholding ratio after the increase of capital will be as follows, and the Company will be the equity-method of mixi and Ceres.
- Noriyuki Hirosue, Founder & CEO: 31.4%
- mixi, Inc.: 26.2%
- CERES INC.: 22.4%
■Schedule
(1) Date of resolution: 2nd September 2021
(2) Date of signing contract: 2nd September 2021
■Comments of the investors
- President and Representative Director of mixi, Inc. Mr. Koki Kimura
In our society, many things have been digitized and the efficiency of logistics and management has increased. Masslessness is an added value. Currency has become one of them. We are attracted by the advanced technology of bitbank, as bitbank implements advanced security measures and has a stable operation system using advanced technology.
Through our capital and business alliance, we believe that we can grow mutually with the advanced technology of bitbank and our know-how of service development, games & sports IPs and marketing.
- President and Representative Director of CERES INC. Mr. Satoshi Takagi
We firstly invested to bitbank in 2015. Although the price of bitcoin was 20,000 JPY and the crypto asset market of Japan was immature, we have developed business believing the innovation would happen through the technology of crypto assets and the blockchain. In 2021, the price of bitcoin reached 7,000,000 JPY and bitbank has become one of the largest exchange in Japan.
By funding together with mixi, we are convinced that we can be the №1 exchange operator in the ever-growing crypto asset and blockchain industry including the IEO, custody and the NFT.
■The situation of crypto asset market and the Company
The crypto asset market has started to be recognized as a genuine asset class. We can recently see some major institutional investors such as Fidelity Bank and BNY Mellon enter into this space. Also, business enterprises like Tesla and Microstrategy hold crypto asset in line with the steady global expansion of its market as well as the increase of its degree of reliability. With such a financial aspect, we can currently find various technical use cases of crypto assets including the NFT and games.
Under these circumstances, our crypto asset exchange “bitbank” expands rapidly — our monthly spot trading volume is 1.4 trillion JPY, traded 33.7% of spot trading volume in the Japanese market and the assets on deposit is 300 billion JPY (as of April 2021). The crypto asset market attracts many industries by its potential for growth. Consequently we expect advanced crypto asset related services integrated by other industries. The Company will show the world the social usefulness of crypto assets and contribute to the growth of the market by creating a use case which employs the technology of crypto assets in collaboration with mixi and Ceres.
■About the capital and business alliance partner
Company name: mixi, Inc.
Address: Shibuya Scramble Square 36F, 2–24–12 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Establishment: 3rd June, 1999
President and Representative Director: Koki Kimura
Industry: Digital Entertainment, Sports, Lifestyle
URL: https://mixi.co.jp/
■About the existing shareholder
Company name: CERES INC.
Address: 24 floor, Setagaya Business Square Tower, 4–10–1 Yoga, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Establishment: 28th January, 2005
President and Representative Director: Satoshi Takagi
Industry: Mobile service, Financial service
■About bitbank
bitbank, inc. runs bitbank, which offers spot trading on the order book, instant buy/sell service and lending service by which users lend their cryptocurrencies to bitbank while they receive interests at the maturity date.
As of April 2021, bitbank shared 33.7% of Japan’s spot trade volume as well as 60.0% of Altcoin (cryptocurrencies which are not bitcoin) trade volume share which is the largest volume nationwide.
The firm was officially licensed by Japan Financial Services Agency as a registered crypto asset exchange operator (Registration №00004, issued by the Director of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau) in September of 2017.
*Extracted from the JVCEA statistic data and bitbank trade data (as of april 2021)
bitbank [ https://bitbank.cc/ ]
bitbank is a crypto asset exchange where users can instantly buy and sell popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ripple and Ethereum. №1 spot trade volume nationwide.
bitbank MARKETS [ https://markets.bitbank.cc/ ]
You can get information about Bitcoin, blockchain and crypto assets at bitbank MARKETS! We provide news and analysis reports on the crypto asset market and other related topics around the world.
■Company information
Name: bitbank, inc.
URL: https://bitbank.cc/about/corporate
Founder: Noriyuki Hirosue (CEO)
Headquarter: 141–0031 7th floor, KDX Nishigotanda Building, 7–20–9 Nishigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Founded: May 7, 2014
Capital: 1,141,590,000 JPY (incl. capital reserve)
Industry: Crypto asset exchange related services
Registered Crypto Asset Exchange Operator by Japan Financial Services Agency (Registration №00004, issued by the Director of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau)
Japan Virtual and Crypto assets Exchange Association (JVCEA)
Japan Cryptoasset Business Association (JCBA)
Blockchain Collaborative Consortium (BCCC)
[Press inquiries]
bitbank, inc. PR team
TEL: 03–6427–1520
E-MAIL: pr@bitcoinbank.co.jp
