Big in Japan: SoftBank partners with Oasys for blockchain play as SBI tightens grip on crypto trading

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(Kitco News) – SoftBank, the Japan-based multinational conglomerate, has revealed that it will become an official validator for Oasys, a “game-optimized blockchain designed for both gamers and developers, focusing on the future of blockchain gaming.”

According to a press release shared with Kitco Crypto, SoftBank chose to sign on to the project because of Oasys’ advanced technological capabilities.

“We are very excited about Oasys blockchain’s flexible, user-centric architecture, which meets the needs of both users and IP content owners, and look forward to working with Oasys to advance Web3’s social implementation and solve social problems,” said Keiichi Makizono, Senior Vice President and CIO of SoftBank.

Apart from participating as a validator, SoftBank also intends to work with Oasys to explore other potential collaborations, including the development of blockchain-based services.

Some other companies that comprise the first 21 validators for the Oasys network include Bandai Namco Research, SEGA, Netmarble, and Square Enix.

Square Enix, the Japanese game studio behind the popular Final Fantasy series, is also in the headlines Thursday after it announced plans to launch its first Web3 game — Symbiogenesis — on the Polygon network, Forkast reported.

Square Enix has referred to Symbiogenesis as an interactive digital collectible art experience where players can use and trade non-fungible tokens (NFT) as in-game items. It is expected to be available in the spring of 2023.

Following the addition of SoftBank, Oasys plans to invite other companies with “high levels of trust and performance on a global scale” to participate as validators to help provide more stability and strength to the network.

Ultimately, Oasys wants to remove the limit on the number of validation slots to help further decentralize the network by enabling public participation through a council.

“With SoftBank as a validator, Oasys will not only expand the stability and ecosystem of the Oasys chain, but also aim to strengthen business cooperation with Oasys,” said Daiki Moriyama, director of Oasys. “We look forward to working with SoftBank to develop the blockchain gaming industry by fostering relationships and synergies with group companies and partners.”

SBI tightens grip on crypto trading in Japan

Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings has announced the successful takeover of rival crypto exchange Bitpoint, a move that allows the firm to tighten its grip on Japan’s domestic crypto market. This is the second time SBI has absorbed a domestic rival.

According to the announcement by SBI, the company was able to acquire a controlling (51%) stake in Bitpoint last May and it has now agreed to buy the remaining 49% of the shares to become the sole owner. SBI did not disclose how much it paid to buy the remaining shares.

Bitpoint is now a “wholly owned subsidiary” under the umbrella of SBI Holdings, which also owns the TaoTao crypto trading platform, an exchange that was once partially owned by Yahoo Japan. SBI also operates SBI VC Trade, a crypto exchange the firm developed in-house. To help improve the services offered through Bitpoint, SBI plans to leverage liquidity from its UK subsidiary B2C2.

The diversity of the crypto trading scene in Japan continues to decline as the crypto winter witnessed several firms exit the market. In December, Kraken announced it would close its Japanese exchange, and Coinbase followed suit the next month, citing the need to cut costs. Of the leading exchanges in the crypto ecosystem, Binance is the only one that currently maintains a presence in Japan following the acquisition of Sakura Exchange BitCoin in November.