Japan’s Crypto Titans Post High Crypto Biz Profits, Pivot Towards Altcoins

Two of Japans biggest crypto players – the financial giants the SBI and Monex groups – have posted high crypto profits in their second-quarter reports.

Both firms have a range of diverse crypto interests, both at home and abroad. SBI operates two domestic crypto exchanges: SBI VC Trade and the TaoTao platforms, in addition to an international mining arm named SBI Crypto and the UK-based liquidity provider B2C2. It also operates a number of joint-venture initiatives with Americas Ripple.

Monex, meanwhile, operates the Coincheck crypto exchange in Japan, as well as the United States-based TradeStation trading platform. Both firms originally made their name in the financial world as securities and banking providers, before pivoting toward crypto in recent years.

In its Q2 report, SBI consolidated its results for its crypto-related business arms, posting a pre-tax profit for the quarter of USD 41.7m, a year-on-year increase of 56% on 2020s Q2 figures.

Monex, meanwhile, posted pre-tax crypto profits of USD 82m, a quarter-on-quarter rise of x1.4 in its own Q2 report.

The group provided some insights into its crypto business performance, writing:

“Cryptocurrency trading value at Coincheck was high due to higher market volatility. Coincheck recorded its highest profit since becoming a part of Monex Group.”

It also emphasized its altcoin credentials, claiming that the revenue contribution of bitcoin (BTC) “has been on a downward trend,” and accounted for 12% in Q2.

It hinted that it would continue to target altcoin growth in the future, pointing to a steady rise in the number of cryptoassets it lists on Coincheck, and noting:

“Coincheck focuses on expanding the number of supported coins and offers the highest number of cryptocurrencies for trading among Japanese cryptoasset exchanges.”

SBI preferred to focus more on future developments, also teasing an altcoin-themed future: SBI VC Trade was “considering adding new [tokens] in the future,” its reports authors noted.

The firm added that TaoTao was working on the launch on an “industry-first” product.

SBI also made mention of its latest hopes for the non-fungible token (NFT) industry, with mention of plans to potentially launch an NFT marketplace and a secondary market platform.

It also wrote of its decentralized finance (DeFi) plans, with talk of “preparing to create a DeFi ecosystem.” The firm explained that a dedicated SBI DeFi unit was “currently working on a smartphone app.”