KDDI Corporation, one of Japan’s largest telecom operators with more than 30 million mobile subscribers, is spending $65 million to buy a 14.9% stake in Coincheck Group N.V., the Netherlands-based holding company behind one of Japan’s most-downloaded crypto exchanges.
The two companies are also launching a joint venture called au Coincheck Digital Assets, which plans to roll out a digital asset wallet by this summer.
The deal pairs KDDI’s mobile payments ecosystem (its au PAY platform) with Coincheck’s exchange infrastructure and licensed trading operations.
The joint venture is majority-owned by KDDI at 50.1%, with Coincheck holding 40% and au Financial Holdings, KDDI’s financial services arm, taking the remaining 9.9%. The entity was incorporated in December 2025, but the capital alliance and formal business agreement were signed this week.
KDDI is plugging digital asset services directly into a payment network that already handles banking, insurance, and everyday transactions for tens of millions of Japanese consumers. The wallet the joint venture plans to build is non-custodial, meaning users hold their own keys.
Why the timing matters
Japan is in the middle of a regulatory overhaul that will shift oversight of digital asset exchanges from the Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, or FIEA.
The transition is expected by 2027 and will impose stricter but clearer rules, closer to how traditional securities are regulated. For KDDI, entering the market now means building infrastructure before the regulatory framework fully crystallizes.
Japan’s blockchain industry could grow to $252 billion by 2034 from $2.5 billion in 2025, according to a report by IMARC Group.
The market is expected to expand at an annual rate of 66.8% between 2026 and 2034, supported by favorable regulations, technological innovation and rising enterprise investment across finance, healthcare, logistics and government services.
IMARC said policy developments including stablecoin reserve reforms and discussions around a flat 20% crypto tax rate are helping encourage blockchain adoption and investor participation.