Minna Bank and Backpack Unite to Launch Japanese Crypto Gateway

Minna Bank, Japan’s first 100% digital bank, is seeking to expand its functionality by adding features that help customers enter the cryptocurrency world.

On Thursday, the bank inked a memorandum of understanding describing a value co-creation agreement with Trek Labs, Japan’s subsidiary of Backpack, a self-custody app that offers tokenized stock, crypto, and perpetuals trading on one platform.

As Trek Labs prepares to register as a cryptocurrency service provider in Japan under the Backpack JP brand, the agreement secures a link to the traditional finance system, allowing potential customers to deposit and withdraw funds in Japanese yen using Minna Bank’s transactional infrastructure.

With its Japanese expansion, Backpack seeks to “provide services centered on the physical trading of cryptocurrencies, taking advantage of the global technological base and trading environment, under domestic laws and user protection frameworks.”

“The partnership brings together Backpack’s global onchain infrastructure and Minna Bank’s banking capabilities to explore new ways to connect digital banking with crypto-asset services in Japan. Together, we aim to deliver more connected financial experiences for customers of both companies and advance collaboration in next-generation onchain finance,” said Backpack on social media.

In a press release, the two institutions revealed that this functionality would be provided as part of an alliance with Minna Bank’s Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) business, providing a white-label service for Backpack to embed in its own digital platform.

Conversely, Minna Bank will also benefit from this partnership by integrating “next-generation on-chain finance” products into its banking stack, mentioning tokenized deposits and the implementation of operational services provided by Backpack within its app.

This hints at upcoming Backpack-enabled trading services being offered directly by the exchange to over 1.7 million users, mainly millennials and centennials. This is not the bank’s first foray into the digital assets industry, having collaborated with Fireblocks and Solana to explore the integration of stablecoins into several consumer and business use cases.

Founded by former FTX employees, Backpack has been on a rapid expansion curve, reaching a $1 billion valuation in its latest funding round in February, reaching unicorn status. The exchange has processed over $60 billion in trading volume since its launch in 2022, hitting a milestone earlier this month after registering over 600K holders for its tokenized asset offerings.