Japanese digital assets exchange BitFlyer Inc will be expanding their reach to the US in order to meet the increasing institutional demand for cryptocurrencies while also doubling its target for overseas revenue.
Hayashi Kuniyoshi, the President of BitFlyer who joined the company after leaving his former position as Citigroup’s deputy president, said:
“The U.S. market is going through a transformation. Naturally, we have to have a try.”
Hayashi stated that the company intends to increase the weight of foreign sales to 20% of the total revenue in the next two years. The overall sales has managed to hit $69 million during the previous year, having increased by 41%. The company’s overseas institutional clients are primarily family offices and hedge funds.
BitFlyer has formed a sales-and-trading team not too long ago, partly to gain new clients. The team will be headed by Kato Takaaki, a former Head of Equity Markets within Citigroup Global Markets Japan.
The firm plans to hire 20 more people, such as engineers and legal experts, by the end of 2021.
In comparison to overseas countries, the institutional investors in Japan have some catching up to do as there are hardly enough firms that provide custodial services necessary for crypto assets — as stated by Monex Inc’s crypto assets analyst Matsushima Masamichi.
Although the US banking giants have more resources and larger customer bases, Hayashi said that the company could present itself as a reliable exchange that US investors can use during Asian trading hours.
