Big-hitting Crypto Companies SBI and GMO Reveal Results and Plans

Two of Japan’s biggest crypto operators – SBI and GMO Internet – have revealed details about their Q3 financial performance – and claim they will expand their cryptocurrency operations in 2020.

Financial giant SBI presented its latest financial report to shareholders. The figures from its cryptocurrency exchange business, SBI VC Trade, provided mixed reading, with revenues up by almost 3%, but pre-tax profits falling by 19%.

SBI VC Trade posted profits of USD 33 million for Q3 of 2019, a rise on the Q3 2018 (pre-launch) figure of USD -9 million.

The company also announced that it was now on the verge of beginning its crypto mining rig business, SBI Carbon, whose website is now live. Mining chipsets are now being shipped as SBI steps up its hardware game.

In its report, SBI also claimed that it had already started accepting mining hardware orders, and says potential customers “including the operators of large projects” had already been in touch.

And the company’s MoneyTap e-pay app, which makes use of Ripple technology, is set for more developments in 2020, with more links to “financial infrastructure” in the pipelines this year.

Rival exchange operator GMO Internet, a large web company that runs its own-branded exchange also released its latest financial report and performance figures.

Per the report, GMO says its number of account holders is up, and now stands at 299,000, while trading volumes are up on the previous financial year.

The operating income for GMO Coin (its exchange business) increased by 22.9% from 2018 Q3 to just over USD 8 million.

The company conceded that it would likely be hit by the regulatory Financial Services Agency’s plans to cut the cap of leveraged trading from x4 to x2 later this year, but stated that it would compensate for this by “increasing the size” of its “user base” in 2020.