Cyptocurrency Fund To Be Launched By Japanese Firm Fisco

Announcements, News | January 11, 2018 By:

Japanese financial information provider Fisco is reportedly planning to create a cryptocurrency fund. “It is being described as the first fund of its kind in Japan,” according to Nikkei.

Fisco is a research and information provider covering stocks, foreign exchanges, bonds, and commodities within and beyond Japan. It is also the operator of Fisco Cryptocurrency Exchange. In September of last year, the exchange became one of the first 11 exchanges to be granted a license by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). The exchange currently supports yen trading of bitcoin, monacoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

The cryptocurrency fund will invest over 300 million yen ($2.66 million) in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin as early as this month. The company said it will aim for investment returns of about 20 percent per year. Fisco will invest its own capital into the fund, along with investments from two other listed FinTech firms. The company will also seek to profit from price differentials among domestic and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges.

In addition, Fisco is planning to expand its cryptocurrency exchange offerings to include financial derivatives products using cryptocurrency, business-to-business (B2B) services such as issuing cryptocurrency corporate bonds, and business to consumer (B2C) services such as crowdfunding.

In August 2017, the company’s crypto exchange issued Japan’s first bitcoin-denominated, unsecured corporate bond. Fisco issued a three-year bond worth 200 bitcoins (approx. $810,000 USD at the time) to an undisclosed firm. The bond pays a 3 percent coupon and gives the holder 200 bitcoins back when it matures on August 10, 2022. Masayuki Tashiro, Fisco’s chief product officer, said that the the bitcoin debt sale was an experiment to explore the bitcoin bonds’ potential as a viable fundraising tool.