Japan’s Fisco Ltd. has issued 3-year bonds denominated in bitcoins, aspiring to boost its business if and when the digital currency eventually becomes a legally recognised financial asset in Japan. The notes pays a 3% coupon and gives bondholders 200 bitcoins back when it matures. The company’s chief product officer Masayuki Tashiro indicated that one goal of the sale was to test this type of bonds’ potential to become a useful fund-raising tool.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government legalised cryptocurrencies on the 1st of April this year, as a form of payment and drafted regulations governing audits and security. In July, Japanese regulators began allowing bitcoin purchases to be exempt from the nation’s 8 per cent sales tax, putting them on similar footing with financial products like stocks and bonds. As some investors turn to digital currencies as a safe haven asset as tensions between the US and North Korea escalate, Japan, where regulators have made more progress than other nations in crafting cryptocurrency laws, is becoming a hub for blockchain experimentation.
