Banking Giant Mizuho Invests in Japan's Biggest Bitcoin Exchange

Japan's largest bitcoin exchange by volume has announced a new round of fundraising.

In a press release today, Tokyo-based Bitflyer revealed it had raised new capital from financial firms including Sumitomo Mitsui, Mizuho Financial Group and Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company. A report by Japan-based news source Nikkei indicated that the funding equalled roughly ¥200m ($1.76m).

According to statements from the startup, the fundraising follows BitFlyer's work with Sumitomo and Mizuho on private blockchain solutions aimed at providing the core infrastructure for enterprise use cases.

Notably, the funding also comes during what could be a period of increasing competition for the startup. As acknowledged in its release, legislation is slated to become law in June that would enable regulated firms to enter Japan's bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets.

As reported by CoinDesk

, the move is expected by many in the blockchain industry to open the doors for existing financial firms to begin offering such services.

Still, BitFlyer is expected to be competitive in the market, boasting more than $35m in funding, the most recent of which was a $27m Series C.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in BitFlyer.

BitFlyer image via Facebook