The second largest bank in Japan, the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), plans on broadening its services to include digital asset businesses along with NFTs and Web3 platforms. The bank aims to create a token business lab to test out these new technologies, in a partnership with Hashport, a company that provides tokenization and listing services in Japan.
Numerous banking companies from around the world that only use traditional finance, are thinking of dipping their toes into the crypto and digital assets business. A press release shows that the combination of SMBC and Hashport will create a service platform. It also states:
"We aim to build an ecosystem involving many players in the NFT domain. We believe that these efforts will contribute to the promotion of Web3 in Japan."
SMBC's long-term intention is to spread token businesses in Japan and the cooperation between SMBC and Hashport will bring forth a business token lab, that will "engage in surveys, research, and demonstration experiments related to the promotion of the token business."
The joint companies are trying to go further than just research and experimentation, and want to give "commercialization support and consulting services to customers considering the token business, including the issuance of NFTs." SMBC's international existence is a way for the company to create its own token business in the future.
Japan, like many other countries, is starting to adapt to cryptocurrencies and is trying to help its citizens avoid confusion and misunderstanding. They seem to be taking the right approach and are making progress.
