The Japan Blockchain Conference
Blockchain could help revive Japan’s long-moribund economy, SBI Holdings CEO Yoshitaka Kitao claimed at the first-ever Japan Blockchain Conference in Tokyo at the end of last month.
“There’s a lot of speculative demand around cryptocurrencies, which is why the price is going up so quickly, but people need to think about how these technologies are being used in real life and how they can improve people’s businesses,” Kitao said during his keynote address at the conference.
A financial services company based in Tokyo, SBI Holdings created a cryptocurrency exchange and trading business — SBI Virtual Currencies — in 2017. That organisation launched VCTRADE, a cryptocurrency spot trading service, on 4 June. The service initially covers just Ripple’s XRP (SBI and Ripple are partners in SBI Ripple Asia), but expects to expand to also include bitcoin and bitcoin cash.
During his talk last week, Kitai said he believes bitcoin cash is a better option than bitcoin, commenting: “Bitcoin is too expensive, and people are just holding it and hoping it increases in value.”
According to Forbes, SBI Holdings has also invested in a wind farm to generate energy to mine bitcoin cash.
In an interview with Ripple last year, Kitao said he also believes blockchain has the potential to reshape the global banking industry.
He said: “In my opinion, we are bracing for a social revolution with blockchain that’s even bigger than the Internet. Using blockchain for global payments is central to this revolution, and by dramatically reducing transaction costs, financial institutions and all users of the financial system will benefit greatly.”
On 28 June, Kitao presented a detailed management information briefing that describes his company’s goal of eventually “providing innovative financial services, with blockchain as a core technology”. That mission includes the development of proprietary blockchain applications for use in the coming “FinTech 2.0” era.
Last year, CB Insights ranked SBI Holdings as the most active corporate investor in blockchain, putting it ahead of Google, Overstock.com, Citi and Goldman Sachs.
