We at FintekNews try to focus on U.S fintech news and events, BUT gosh, its getting harder since the rest of the globe is way out in front of us in adapting new technology (uh, hello Washington). So, Japan, being a leader in adapting to bitcoin, now has a company (Fisco LTD) which has run an experiment in issuing a bond denominated in.......bitcoins. Fisco believes that the crypto currency will become a legalized financial asset. Oh, you can already buy airline tickets with bitcoin in Japan as well as lots more 'stuff', BUT a financial asset would be a huge step. Go Japan (psst, can you clue our leaders in the new world?).
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
- "Fisco issues $813,000 worth of notes to a group company
- The company expects Japan to revise law in favor of bitcoins
Japan’s Fisco Ltd. is experimenting with selling bonds denominated in bitcoins, figuring that the digital currency will eventually become a legally recognized financial asset in Japan and help boost its business.
A unit of the Tokyo-based financial information provider issued three-year debt worth 200 bitcoins to another firm in the Fisco group on Aug. 10, in what likely is the first such deal in Japan, according to Masayuki Tashiro, the company’s chief product officer. One goal of the sale was to test the bonds’ potential to become a useful fundraising tool, he said. The notes issued were worth about $813,000 as of Wednesday.
The experiment is another example of how companies and investors worldwide are looking for ways to make money out of bitcoin. Some investors have turned to digital currencies as a haven asset as tensions between the U.S. and North Korea escalate. Japan, where regulators have made more progress than other nations in crafting cryptocurrency laws, is becoming a hub for blockchain experimentation.
“We expect that bitcoin will eventually be recognized as a financial product” under local law governing financial instruments, Tashiro said. If that happens and issuance of cryptocurrency debt takes off, “if we play a role of arranger, we could earn fees,” he said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government on April 1 legalized cryptocurrencies as a form of payment and placed rules around audits and security. In July, regulators began allowing bitcoin purchases to be exempt from the nation’s 8 percent sales tax, putting them on similar footing with financial products like stocks and bonds...."
Full Story at Bloomberg