Digital Yen Would Make Crypto Markets 'More Lively,' Says CEO of Monex Group
Oki Matsumoto said a central bank digital currency would make it easier to convert cryptocurrency into legal tender.

The chief executive of Monex Group, a financial services firm based in Tokyo, believes central bank digital currencies (CBDC) would be a boon for the cryptocurrency market.
As reported by Reuters on Wednesday, Oki Matsumoto said the introduction of a digital version of the yen by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) would "significantly enhance the interoperability of cryptocurrencies" by smoothing the process of exchanging them into legal tender.
Further, smaller brokers don't always have bank accounts, he said.
See also: Leading Japanese Financial Firm SBI Holdings Rolls Out Crypto Lending Services
Matsumoto's company manages a host of retail online brokerages in Japan and overseas and is also the owner of Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck.
The BOJ has been exploring the implications of CBDCs since creating a task force in July and naming its most senior economist, Kazushige Kamiyama, to lead the department in charge of digital currency research and development. A proof-of-concept trial is likely to take place in 2021, the central bank said recently.
A digital yen "would make the cryptocurrency market more lively,” Matsumoto told Reuters.
More For You
Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Proposed ‘AfterDark’ Bitcoin ETF Would Skip U.S. Trading Hours

The fund would hold bitcoin only overnight, betting on data showing bitcon gains mostly occur outside regular market hours.
What to know:
- Nicholas Financial has filed with the SEC to launch a bitcoin ETF that holds BTC only during overnight hours.
- The “AfterDark” ETF buys bitcoin after U.S. stocks close for the day and then sells bitcoin and shifts into Treasuries during the American session.
- Data shows bitcoin tending to perform better when traditional U.S. markets are closed.











