Crypto Garage, Inc. (株式会社 Crypto Garage) — Japan crypto-asset exchange operator overview
ConfidenceLikelyUpdated2026-07-29Review by2027-01-29Sources5Machine-translatedOriginal (JA)
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This entry sits under exchanges index. Read it with FSA crypto-asset exchange registration system — number system / Local Finance Bureau jurisdiction / registration requirements for adjacent context and Japan Financial Regulation — Legal Framework for Tokens, Crypto Assets, and Payments for the broader system boundary.
FSA registration number, Kanto Local Finance Bureau 第00029号 · JVCEA member #1035 · registration date 2021-06-29
1. Corporate / shareholders
- Trade name: 株式会社 Crypto Garage (English: Crypto Garage, Inc.)
- Established: 2018年9月
- Head-office location: France Building, Ebisu-Nishi 2-19-9 , Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
- Corporate number: 6011001124112
- Capital structure (disclosed portion):
- Digital Garage, Inc. (Digital Garage · TSE Prime 4819) is the principal investor. The joint-venture partner at founding was Tokyo Tanshi Co., Ltd. In 2021年10月 a third-party allotment of shares was carried out with Nomura Holdings, Inc. as the allottee, and Nomura HD participated as a new investor.
- Blockstream is also listed in the “Backed By” section of the corporate site, with its capital / technology partnership publicly disclosed.
- The specific shareholding ratios of each company are not disclosed.
Digital Garage positions the company as a strategic subsidiary in the fintech / blockchain field, and has dispatched 2 名directors (Kaoru Hayashi, Keizo Odori). Tokyo Tanshi has also dispatched 2 名directors (Toshiaki Terada, Misaki Kato).
2. License / registration status
- Crypto-asset exchange business: Director-General of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau 第00029号 (registration date: 2021年6月29日, under the Payment Services Act)
- Financial instruments business: not registered (JVCEA Type 1 member #1035 is crypto-asset exchange business only, no derivatives registration)
- Electronic-payment-instruments business / funds-transfer business: not registered (disclosed portion)
- JVCEA: Type 1 member #1035(crypto-asset exchange business only)
- Global Digital Finance: member (industry self-regulatory body)
3. Currencies handled
The official site describes SETTLENET PRO, CUSTODY, and OTC, along with R&D on Bitcoin, Lightning, and Liquid Network, but it does not publish a fixed list or count of handled assets. Supported assets should be checked against the applicable contract service and current service materials; R&D topics should not be used to infer an asset count.
4. Scope of business
The company is not a retail spot exchange, but an operator specializing in digital-asset infrastructure for institutions and corporates (self-described: “regulated institutional digital assets infrastructure company”). The main service lines are as follows:
The table below is based on Crypto Garage’s current service pages. For launch timing, functionality, and target customers, the official description for each service takes precedence; unlisted functions are not inferred.^[Sources: https://cryptogarage.co.jp/services/pro/; https://cryptogarage.co.jp/services/custody/; https://cryptogarage.co.jp/services/otc/; https://cryptogarage.co.jp/services/rd/.]
| Service | Content |
|---|---|
| SETTLENET PRO | An intermediary / OTC settlement platform in the crypto-asset inter-dealer market. Provides non-custodial DvP settlement, a JPY-denominated token (issued by the company), and point-in-time net settlement |
| SETTLENET CUSTODY | A domestic-regulation-compliant digital-asset custody service for institutional investors and corporates (launched 2023年4月). Insured segregated management, staking (added 2024年3月), and an OES (Off Exchange Settlement) function |
| SETTLENET OTC | A crypto-asset OTC dealer for corporates and business entities (launched 2023年4月). Leverages a global LP network, premium service with email/phone support |
| R&D | Research and development on Bitcoin · Lightning · Liquid Network, OSS contributions to the Discreet Log Contracts (DLC) protocol, research on P2P derivatives trading |
| Blockchain Dev | Contracted blockchain development for corporate clients |
| mahola | Blockchain backend service (API), officially launched 2024年10月 |
Fiat-currency deposit channels: corporate only (bank transfer). There are no retail-facing channels such as convenience-store deposit or quick deposit.
5. Market share / trading volume
- Among the Crypto Garage, FSA, and JVCEA materials identified in this review as of 2026-07-29, no disclosure of trading volume or account count was identified. This does not establish that no such disclosure exists
- Customer base: specialized in institutional investors, business entities, crypto-asset exchanges, liquidity providers, high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and asset managers. Does not provide services for general retail investors
- Market position: official materials describe infrastructure for institutions and corporates as the principal focus. Do not infer customer count or market rank without disclosed figures
6. History / major incidents
The table below is limited to milestones directly confirmed through Crypto Garage’s official About page and news list and the FSA/JVCEA registration materials.^[Sources: https://cryptogarage.co.jp/en/about/; https://cryptogarage.co.jp/news/; https://jvcea.or.jp/member/; https://www.fsa.go.jp/menkyo/menkyoj/kasoutuka.xlsx.]
| Year/Month | Item |
|---|---|
| 2018-09 | Established as a joint venture of Digital Garage, Inc. × Tokyo Tanshi Co., Ltd. |
| 2019-01 | Obtained 第1号 certification as a blockchain / finance field under the Cabinet Office regulatory-sandbox system |
| 2019-01 | Announced development of SETTLENET (a product supporting app development for blockchain financial operators) |
| 2019-04 | Developed and announced a P2P protocol realizing Bitcoin-settled crypto-currency derivatives trading |
| 2020-06 | Launched commercial service of the settlement platform “SETTLENET” for the OTC market |
| 2021-02 | Launched the SETTLENET v2 service based on crypto-asset exchange registration (added price streaming · point-in-time net settlement) |
| 2021-06 | Completed crypto-asset-exchange-operator registration (Kanto Local Finance Bureau 第00029号) |
| 2021-10 | Third-party allotment of shares and business alliance with Nomura Holdings as the allottee |
| 2022-08 | Paper on DLC accepted at IEEE ICBC 2022 (academic recognition) |
| 2023-04 | Launched SETTLENET CUSTODY · OTC services (domestic-first, custody for institutional investors) |
| 2023-11 | Agreed with Komainu (invested by the Nomura Group) on collaboration to develop crypto-asset services for institutional investors in Japan |
| 2024-03 | Added staking service to SETTLENET CUSTODY |
| 2024-10 | Official launch of the blockchain backend service “mahola” |
| 2024-12 | Technical support for the BETA version of Nissan Motor’s “NISSAN PASSPORT” |
| 2025-08 | Jointly developed and began providing, with Pacific Meta, a consulting package supporting corporate crypto-asset holdings |
| 2025-12 | Paper on Custodial Wallet accepted at IEEE Blockchain 2025 |
Among the Crypto Garage, FSA, and JVCEA materials identified in this review as of 2026-07-29, no record of an administrative disposition, hack, or major system failure was identified. This does not establish that no such event exists. The June 2024 item “Regarding our response to an outflow of crypto assets at another company” concerns another company.
7. Strategic trends
- Official service and R&D pages continue to present an institution-focused × Bitcoin-native direction. SETTLENET PRO is described for the crypto-asset inter-dealer market, but no market rank is asserted
- Collaboration with Blockstream / Liquid Network: Blockstream is listed in the “Backed By” section of the official site. With R&D themes specialized in Bitcoin · Lightning · Liquid Network, a role as a major dissemination partner for Liquid Network sidechain technology in the Japanese market is suggested (the specific investment amount and contract details with Blockstream are not disclosed)
- Nomura Group × Komainu collaboration (2023年11月): collaboration in the institutional-investor custody-service domain. Through the linkage with Komainu (the joint-venture custodian of Nomura Holdings (Nomura HD) × Ledger × CoinShares), it advances the development of global-level institutional infrastructure (the company’s position is detailed in Japan Institutional Custody Three-Pillar Structure — Komainu / Ginco / Fireblocks Japan Comparison and Domestic crypto-asset market maker / OTC desk industry overview)
- Expansion of web3 development contracts: since 2024年, blockchain-development-support projects in non-crypto fields — Nissan Motor, the Society for Testing English Proficiency (Eiken), SKY Perfect JSAT, Shiwa Town in Iwate Prefecture, etc. — have increased. Diversifies the developer-facing business line via the mahola API
- Recent official items: the official news list includes the launch of crypto-asset-holding support with Pacific Meta (August 2025) and acceptance of a paper at IEEE Blockchain 2025 (December 2025). Among the official, FSA, and JVCEA materials identified in this review as of 2026-07-29, no IPO or overseas-expansion disclosure was identified, but this does not establish that none exists
8. Related persons
- Representative Director CEO: Masahito Okuma (大熊 将人)
- Directors (disclosed portion):
- Kaoru Hayashi (Digital Garage, Inc.)
- Keizo Odori (Digital Garage, Inc.)
- Toshiaki Terada (Tokyo Tanshi Co., Ltd.)
- Misaki Kato (Tokyo Tanshi Co., Ltd.)
- Toshinori Sasaki (Nomura Holdings, Inc.)
- Auditor: Yasuyuki Rokuyata (Digital Garage, Inc.)
- Founding background: born from a joint venture of Digital Garage (IT · FinTech investment · infrastructure business) and Tokyo Tanshi (the interbank money market). The fusion of interbank-market know-how × blockchain technology is the core of the business model.
Related
- japan-financial-regulation — Japanese financial regulation as a whole
- japan-bittrade-listing-process — General theory of the listing process
- japan-stablecoin-regulatory-landscape — Related stablecoin regime
- jp-trust-type-sc-architecture — Related SC regime
- jp-exchange-bitflyer — Industry peer (major)
- jp-exchange-sbi-vc-trade — Industry peer (institution-focused)
- jp-custody-komainu — Collaboration partner Komainu (institutional custody)
- jp-institutional-custody-three-pillars — JP institutional custody three pillars
- jp-crypto-market-maker-otc-layer — JP crypto market maker / OTC layer
Sources
- Crypto Garage official corporate site (top) (accessed 2026-05-18)
- Crypto Garage company overview (Japanese) (accessed 2026-05-18)
- Crypto Garage Company Profile (English) (accessed 2026-05-18)
- Crypto Garage SETTLENET PRO service details (accessed 2026-05-18)
- Crypto Garage SETTLENET CUSTODY service details (accessed 2026-05-18)
- Crypto Garage SETTLENET OTC service details (accessed 2026-05-18)
- Crypto Garage R&D service details (accessed 2026-05-18)
- Crypto Garage news list (all 3pages) (accessed 2026-05-18)
- JVCEA member list (accessed 2026-05-18)
- FSA crypto-asset-exchange-operator registration list Excel (snapshot 令和8年4月1日 = 2026-04-01)
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