Major Japanese Firm Reveals Plans for a Digital Securities Exchange

Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings, a major Japanese traditional financial institution, is working towards launching a digital security exchange in Japan.

Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings, one of the major traditional Japanese financial institutions, has unveiled a plan to develop a security token exchange. Tokai Tokyo is already an investor in Huobi Japan. 

According to Nikkei, as the first step in the journey, Tokai Tokyo is investing in blockchain company Hash Dash Holdings to leverage the company’s knowledge to develop the exchange. Hash Dash aims to apply blockchain technology to the financial industry for issuing digital securities and providing a trading service on smartphones. 

The planned exchange will trade in tokenized real estate, and Tokai Tokyo, Hash Dash and ICHX TECH will explore this sector by digitizing Japanese real estate and trade it at iSTOX, a digital security exchange in Singapore it has invested in. They are also exploring digitizing IPs and corporate bonds.

Tokai Tokyo hopes to connect its planned Japanese exchange with iSTOX so that investors can buy and sell digitized assets at either exchange seamlessly, making it possible for Japanese corporations to raise money at the exchange in Singapore. 

Tokai Tokyo’s plan in the crypto industry

Last December, Tokai Tokyo invested 500 million yen (about $4.7 million) in Huobi Japan, a licensed crypto exchange in Japan. The plan was to start Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) to help corporations raise money. The company was also considering trading some community currencies at Huobi’s IEO. 

In March, Tokai Tokyo became a member of Japan Security Token Offering Association, a self-regulatory organization for STO.