- PayPay acquired a 40% equity stake in Binance Japan, making Binance Japan an affiliate.
- PayPay users will soon buy or sell crypto directly via the PayPay Money payment service.
PayPay, a payment service from SoftBank Group, has acquired a major minority stake in Binance’s business in Japan, allowing the Findex ecosystem to make strides into crypto services. This investment recognizes PayPay as an influential player in Japan’s rapidly evolving digital asset market, and it increases Binance’s footprint in the Japanese market.
Strategic Partnership Bridges Traditional and Crypto Finance
PayPay recently finalized the acquisition of a 40% equity stake in Binance Japan, as part of a capital and business collaboration agreement initiated in September. Based out of Tokyo, PayPay is a mobile payment service owned by Japanese telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Group Corp., which plans to directly incorporate cryptocurrency trading functionality into its current payment system to accommodate millions of users. As of today, Binance Japan will operate as an equity-method affiliate under PayPay’s umbrella of a growing digital financial ecosystem, and will provide synergies for cashless payments and digital assets.
The partnership will allow customers of Binance to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using PayPay Money, the integrated cashless payment service with a nationwide network. The partnership’s goal is to make cryptocurrency more accessible to consumers by seamlessly combining a familiar payment method with Binance’s sophisticated trading technology, provided by the most popular cryptocurrency exchange.
According to PayPay’s corporate officer and the head of business planning, Masayoshi Yanase, the strategic value in establishing a partnership with Binance is the exchange’s total volume of trading worldwide and its technical capabilities. The partnership enables PayPay’s journey from a simple payment processor into a broader digital financial platform to accommodate various consumer needs throughout Japan.
PayPay had over 70 million registered users by July, establishing a meaningful footprint in the digital payments market in Japan. The platform facilitated nearly 380 million remittance transactions in 2024, which was a 36% growth from a year earlier a year. The growth rate is extremely outpaced by the mere 7.5% growth in transaction volume over the same time period in traditional banking.
Takeshi Chino, general manager at Binance Japan, said that the association would enhance access to Web3 for all of Japan through PayPay’s large user base. PayPay is also growing internationally, having recently built out in South Korea, and confidentially filed for a stock exchange listing in the United States in August.
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