Securities Giant Monex Group Will Give Bitcoin to All Shareholders

Japanese securities firm Monex Group has announced that it will hand out bitcoin to all of its shareholders – regardless of how much stock they own in the company.

Although the payout is relatively small – just 500 yen (around USD 4.67) – the company says that it will be made universally, and will be offered to new and existing shareholders on September 30.

The company says that shareholders wishing to claim the benefit will need to have (or open) BTC wallets at Japanese exchange Coincheck, a subsidiary of the Monex Group.

Japanese media observers say the move is significant as it marks the first time a major securities company has given cryptocurrency bonuses to shareholders. However, the company may well be following in the footsteps of financial group SBI Holdings, which last month handed out Ripple’s XRP tokens to its own shareholders.

Monex is as yet undecided about whether or not it will pay shareholder dividends in cryptocurrencies again in FY2019 or beyond.

The Monex Group CEO Oki Matsumoto and SBI chief Yoshitaka Kitao are two of Japan’s most influential and highest-profile cryptocurrency enthusiasts. The latter is a Ripple board member and an outspoken crypto advocate.

And, as previously reported, Matsumoto recently revealed Monex was the first Asian company to reach out to Facebook about possible Libra collaboration. Matsumoto is thought to be hopeful of listing Libra on Coincheck, and could seek to join the Libra governance council and/or operate a node.

Coincheck was sold to Monex in 2018 after the former was the victim of a massive hack in January of that year.

After a flash crash on Tuesday, bitcoin trades (06:49 UTC) at c. USD 8,495, and is down by 13% in the past 24 hours and by 17% in the past week.