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A unit of Fisco, the Tokyo-based financial information provider, issued three-year debt worth 200 bitcoins in what likely is the first such deal in Japan. The debt pays a 3% coupon and gives the holder 200 bitcoins back when it matures. The goal of the sale was to test the bonds’ potential to become a useful fundraising tool.
“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.
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