Kakao Piccoma: The Webtoon Platform Acquires 50% shares Of Japan’s Sakura Exchange

Kakao Piccoma, the Japanese Webtoon platform, purchases half of Japan’s Sakura Exchange.

Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC) is among the total thirty crypto exchanges in the country registered with the Financial Services Agency (FSA).

The deal is also expected to facilitate Kakao to provide cryptocurrency services on its Picomma webtoon platform and exponentially expand to Web3.

A Japanese digital comics subscription service and a division of Korean internet firm Kakao, Kakao Piccoma, has recently purchased half the controlling stake in Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC), a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange.

Kakao’s Piccoma Becomes Largest Stakeholder Of The Crypto Trading Platform

And this buying makes Kakao Piccoma its largest stakeholder. Furthermore, reportedly, the deal is also expected to facilitate Kakao to provide cryptocurrency services on its Picomma webtoon platform and exponentially expand to Web3. Currently, Picomma is the largest webtoon platform in Japan.

Although the amount paid by Kakao for this 50% staking in Sakura is not revealed, Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC) is among the total thirty crypto exchanges in the country registered with the Financial Services Agency (FSA). It lists around eleven digital assets, which include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), etc.

This move by Kakao is followed and is the first merger and acquisition decision after Kakao’s founder Kim Beom-soo quit the Board of Directors (BOD). This was a step by him to focus on the firm’s affiliate brands, especially the Japanese Kakao Piccoma brand.

This is not the first time Kakao has signified towards its inclination toward the crypto space, as last year, in August, the company rolled out two blockchain companies in Singapore. The two launched companies were Krust, a leader in global tech adoption and Klatyn Foundation, which is a nonprofit organisation.

Earlier in February, Kakao’s another subsidiary Kakao Games, announced about the rebranding of its subsidiary, Friends Games, which is changed to Meta Bora, directing its focus towards Blockchain-related games and entertainment to support BORA, its cryptocurrency.

Additionally, Kakao operates a specialised blockchain subsidiary by the name Ground X that won a CBDC tender from the Bank of Korea last year in July. And the firm was also an early investor in the first crypto exchange to file with South Korea’s financial regulators, UpBit exchange.