Japan-based bitcoin exchange bitFlyer has raised ¥3bn, or just shy of $27m, in a Series C funding round led by Venture Labo Investment and SBI Investment, the venture capital division of financial services conglomerate SBI Group.
The announcement is the latest for bitFlyer, which raised ¥510m ($4m) as part of a funding round last August that included Dentsu Digital Holdings, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital Co and Venture Labo.
In interview, bitFlyer CEO Yuzo Kano indicated that the funding could be used to double the size of the exchange’s 23-person team, currently based in Tokyo and Luxembourg.
Kano said that the funding was due to bitFlyer’s focus on both bitcoin trading and blockchain applications more broadly, telling CoinDesk:
"Investors value our technical advantage. We are almost the only company that has been focusing on both virtual currency and blockchain from day one."
Kano said that bitFlyer’s banking investors are primarily interested in its blockchain technology work, as well as what he described as “various FinTech related resources” that the company has in addition to its digital currency exchange.
According to data from Coinmarketcap, the exchange saw volume for its BTC/JPY trading pair totaling $8.8m in the last 24 hours, a figure that places it ahead of competitors BTCBOX and Zaif.
The new capital brings BitFlyer’s total funding to more than $34m over five investment rounds.
Coins of Japan image via Shutterstock
Disclaimer: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in bitFlyer.