Author: AB Kuai.Dong, Skyland Fund Ambassador

Amidst the wave of Crypto going global, due to the cheap exchange rate and low work visa threshold, it has become easier to obtain permanent residency, leading to many Crypto projects and exchanges setting up offices in Japan over the past year to serve as offshore office locations for global markets. This year, Tokyo, Osaka, and other cities have become financial special zones, and the countdown to obtaining investment permanent residency policies has officially begun.

So, which well-known teams are based in Japan? What is the size of their teams? This article will provide a detailed overview.

Top teams with hundreds of members

· Binance acquired a Japanese compliant exchange, SEBC, in 2022 and renamed it Binance Japan in late 2023, officially starting compliant operations in Japan. In the same year, it established a partnership with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Bank, a leading bank in Japan, and planned to issue a Japanese yen stablecoin. Due to the tightening of Singapore work visas and U.S. regulatory policies in 2023, some employees who did not obtain overseas work visas were assigned to Binance Japan. Since then, Binance's Tokyo office has embarked on a large-scale expansion.

· BitFlyer is a leading compliant exchange in Japan. In its early days, its shareholders were major financial conglomerates such as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Resona Bank, and Mitsubishi UFJ. This year, the company acquired the bankrupt FTX Japan subsidiary, further solidifying its position as a leading compliant exchange in Japan. Although BitFlyer originated in Japan, it has been seeking international expansion.

· Coincheck is a first-tier exchange in Japan with a higher listing frequency compared to its Japanese counterparts. It has publicly collaborated with Animoca Brands and Circle. In May of this year, the company planned to seek a listing on the NASDAQ in the United States through a SPAC.

· Bitbank is one of the few exchanges in Japan that supports the registration of accounts for overseas companies and provides customer service support in Chinese and English. In 2022, the company invested in the Japanese game public chain Oasys and established a partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

· SBI Crypto is a subsidiary of SBI, a leading securities firm in Japan. Over the past few years, the company has acquired and merged multiple Crypto enterprises and operates Bitcoin and Litecoin mining pools. The team is currently quite diverse, with employees from China, the United States, and Australia.

Small to medium-sized teams with dozens of members

· Cardano is the highest-ranking project in terms of market capitalization on CMC with two co-founders who have been working and residing in Japan for a long time. The team also obtained early benefits from the Japanese community during the ICO boom of that year. Its ADA token was once considered the Japanese version of Ethereum by the Japanese community. The Japanese team is still in operation and regularly holds offline events.

· Backpack is an exchange and multi-chain wallet supported by Multicoin and the Solana Foundation. With one co-founder leading the product and technology department, the team is conducting research and development and operations at its office in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The team is currently recruiting and expanding.

· B2C2 is an international liquidity provider with hundreds of employees globally, including dozens in its Tokyo office. The company was once the largest liquidity provider for XRP and has also provided liquidity services for well-known projects such as Blockdaemon and Stakewise.

· Cointelegraph Japan is the independent team of the internationally renowned leading Crypto media, Cointelegraph, in Tokyo. The Japanese team also oversees Cointelegraph's Chinese, Indonesian, and Korean sites.

· MEXC is a well-known veteran exchange, known as MXC, with an office in Japan primarily serving the operational needs of the Asian time zone. It is the second offshore office established outside of Malaysia.

· Amber Japan is the Japanese subsidiary of the market maker Amber, with a registered capital of 800 million yen. The company once acquired DeCurret, which was registered with the Financial Services Agency at its peak, completed local compliance work, and was considered for sale when its parent company faced debt rumors. It is currently rumored to have been acquired by a Japanese consortium.

· Oasys is a Layer1 public chain that has received investment support from NGC, Kucoin, and Jump. It has established partnerships with many well-known Japanese game companies to help these companies issue NFTs and game props on the blockchain.

· AStar is a long-standing public chain project in Japan that has received investments from Polychain, Coinbase, and Binance. This year, it partnered with Sony to establish a Crypto accelerator and has now shifted its focus to the zkEVM track.

· Jasmy is an early Crypto + IoT project in Japan and one of the few Japanese projects listed on Binance and Coinbase. It is currently ranked 56th globally by market capitalization, attracting attention from many Chinese-speaking investors. It has now shifted its focus to the DePIN track.

· CoinPost is a leading local Crypto media in Japan and has a significant influence through its annual webX summit.

· Double jump is the parent company of Oasys and has incubated well-known IP NFT projects such as "Captain Tsubasa" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

Small teams with several to a dozen members

· Hashed is the largest Crypto fund in South Korea, but it also has a research group in Japan. Every year, it co-organizes the Tokyo Blockchain Leaders Summit with other organizations, inviting many founders who have been invested in by Hashed to participate.

· Skyland is the largest Crypto fund registered with the Financial Services Agency in Japan and one of the few Japanese institutions actively investing in Chinese projects. It has invested in well-known projects such as Taiko, Merlin, Bitlayer, Unisat, and BitSmiley, which are well-known in China.

· IVC is a global seed fund in Japan, known as Infinity Ventures Crypto, and operates the Kyoto IVS summit. It has invested in well-known projects such as YGG, Mirror, and Scroll.

· Azuki is an internationally renowned NFT project with a dedicated artist studio in Japan, providing design and local operations for Azuki. It is also a well-known blue-chip NFT project among many Japanese investors.

· Mask Network is an early Crypto project from the Chinese-speaking community to enter Japan and has a high level of recognition in the Japanese industry. 0xCryptoBaby, a well-known community KOL in Japan, is also a member of Mask. Mask is a major sponsor of international conferences related to Japan every year.

· OneKey is an open-source wallet service provider that has received investments from Dragonfly, Coinbase, and Framework. The founder moved to Japan early and has members responsible for business expansion in Japan.

· Intmax is a Layer2 public chain that has received investments from SNZ, Hashkey, and Mask. The founder, Mai Fujimoto, is a well-known figure in the Japanese Crypto community and has been referred to as the "Bitcoin Lady" by the media for her early involvement in Bitcoin technology and values in Japan.

· Myshell is an AI consumer project that has received investments from Dragonfly, OKX, and Folius. It currently has core members who have established a company and office in Japan.

· KEKKAI is a blockchain security inspection company that has received investments from Bixin, Skyland, and Mask. The founder is a core member of the Waseda University Blockchain Association and has helped organize hackathons for several internationally renowned projects in Japan.

· TON is a public chain created by Telegram, and it has a dedicated ambassador and offline office in Tokyo. During a previous roadshow in Tokyo, five Japanese project teams based on TON showcased and shared their work.

· Ripple is a leading Crypto project that entered the Japanese market early and has a joint venture with SBI. It operates and has offices in Japan and had a market-making team from Japan providing liquidity in the early stages.

· Animoca Japan is the Japanese subsidiary of Animoca, which has received investments from Nishi-Nippon Railroad and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. They are shareholders of the Japanese game union Apricot Planet and have established partnerships with Mitsui & Co. and KDDI.

· YGG Japan is the independent Japanese company of YGG, which has received investments from Animoca, Gate, and IVC. They have organized multiple offline blockchain gaming events in Japan and have a certain level of influence.

· BYTOM is the well-known Bytom chain in the Chinese-speaking community, and it officially landed in Tokyo this year and opened a Tokyo office. It is currently transitioning to AI.

· Aki is a consumer task platform that has received investments from Oak, Mask, and CatcherVC. The team had already moved to Japan and established a Tokyo office before issuing tokens.

· MyToken is a very experienced software wallet company in the industry. Its founder and core members have moved to Tokyo and gradually established a Tokyo office.

· Gate is a very experienced Crypto exchange in the industry, and it has a global team targeting the Asia-Pacific time zone in Japan. It has established a Tokyo office.

· OKCoin is the compliant station of OKX in Japan, with a team supporting global site listings and legal matters in the Asia-Pacific time zone. It has established a Tokyo office.

· Atomicals Market is the largest trading market for Bitcoin ARC20, and its founder has been residing in Tokyo for a long time and is a seasoned blockchain technology developer in the Tokyo Chinese community.

In addition to the above, there are dozens of lesser-known global Crypto companies in Japan, mainly providing offshore operations, development outsourcing, and market connections for projects. I hope the above information can help you understand the latest situation in the Japanese Crypto market. Thank you for reading.

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