bitFlyer is a private company headquartered in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

and founded in 2014. It operates one of the largest

cryptocurrency exchanges A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...

with 2.5 million users and develops other crypto-related technology.

History

bitFlyer was founded in 2014 by Yuzo Kano, a former derivatives and bonds trader from

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

. bitFlyer's cryptocurrency exchange was launched in April 2014, a few months before the once market-dominant bitcoin exchange,

Mt. Gox Mt. Gox was a bitcoin exchange based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Launched in 2010, it was handling over 70% of all bitcoin (BTC) transactions worldwide by early 2014, when it abruptly ceased operations amid revelations of its involvement in the los ...

, went out of business. In 2018 the exchange stopped taking new customers after Japanese regulators accused the exchange of not taking actions to stop money laundering and terrorist financing. Regulators stated that most directors were friends of the CEO Yuzo Kano, a former Goldman Sachs trader. By February 2016, it had 100,000 users and was processing about 7 billion yen ($64 million USD) in monthly cryptocurrency transactions, making it the largest Bitcoin exchange in Japan. It raised about $36 million USD in venture capital over three funding rounds. The company established partnerships with retailers, mobile app companies, and payment processors to facilitate smartphone-based cryptocurrency payments at retail locations. bitFlyer also secured regulatory approval to sell cryptocurrency to institutional investors. bitFlyer expanded internationally to the United States in November 2017 and to Europe in January 2018. By 2018, the company was processing 80 percent of bitcoin transactions in Japan and had grown to 150 employees. In 2018, bitFlyer was one of six exchanges ordered to improve their procedures against money laundering, causing bitFlyer to temporarily suspend services while it implemented new systems. In 2019, bitFlyer created a subsidiary focused on blockchain technology and services.

Services

Users of the bitFlyer exchange can buy/sell cryptocurrency with each other, or buy/sell directly with bitFlyer itself. bitFlyer's first service was its cryptocurrency exchange, which was initially focused on bitcoin. The company later added futures contracts and bitcoin derivatives to the exchange. As of 2017, 75 percent of transactions on bitFlyer are for derivatives, where users make investments based on their prediction of future bitcoin prices. bitFlyer first introduced its blockchain technology, called Miyabi, in 2016. In 2019, bitFlyer added other cryptocurrencies to its exchange, such as

Ethereum Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...

and

Litecoin Litecoin (Abbreviation: LTC; sign: Ł) is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. Inspired by Bitcoin, Litecoin was among the earliest altcoins, starting in October 2011. ...

. The company also added features to pay for goods at retailers using cryptocurrency and to buy cryptocurrency using credit cards or points from

loyalty programs A loyalty program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of a business associated with the program. Today, such programs cover most types of commerce, each having varying features an ...

. In June 2020, bitFlyer introduced a blockchain-based voting service called bvote. The company also introduced a blockchain consulting arm.

References

External links

* {{Cryptocurrencies, state=expanded Digital currency exchanges Internet technology companies of Japan