SBI Group, a financial services firm in Japan, is letting users buy BTC, ETH, and XRP with credit card points. Credit card companies are integrating crypto worldwide right now.
For now, this experiment is very small-scale, as it only enables purchases under $15 at one time. Still, SBI’s decision may reflect growing pro-crypto sentiment across Japanese corporations.
Japan Puts Crypto on Credit Cards
Buying crypto with credit cards is nothing new, and several major Web3 firms have joined the trend recently. Coinbase is partnering with Amex to launch a credit card, and Bitget Wallet is doing something similar.
However, SBI Holdings, a financial services firm based in Japan, is breaking new ground with its latest credit card rewards:
“We… have collaborated to add Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP (XRP) handled by our company as exchange prizes for our ‘APLUS Points’ points service. This is the first time that cryptocurrencies have appeared as exchange prizes for APLUS points,” the firm’s subsidiary, SBI VC Trade, claimed in a press release.
At first glance, this seems like a huge breakthrough. Mastercard recently became an industry pioneer by linking credit cards to DEX access, and now Japan is joining the trend.
SBI Holdings holds over $214 billion in assets under management, so its credit card division could potentially become a real market mover.
Unfortunately, this development seems like more of a gimmick. SBI users can exchange 2100 APLUS points for BTC, ETH, or XRP worth 2000 yen. However, the Japanese yen is very weak right now, so these credit card points will only buy $13.64 in crypto.
It’s not clear how easy it is to earn these points, but it may not scale well for real token acquisition.
Additionally, the firm was very sparse on practical details. It’s unclear how SBI will custody or transfer these assets, for example. Still, this program could onboard credit card users all across Japan to the Web3 industry.
Moreover, this is an important signal for adoption trends. Japan’s flailing economy has encouraged crypto investment, and SBI’s credit card subsidiary is joining the trend.
Many Japanese firms are investing heavily in crypto, and this phenomenon may even lead to friendlier crypto regulations.
In other words, even if the credit card redemption scheme itself is small-scale, it reflects crypto sentiment in Japan’s corporate sector. Signals like this can eventually represent monumental market trends.
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