Japan’s Bitbank launches crypto-linked Visa card enabling users to settle bills directly in Bitcoin from exchange balances, marking a first in the domestic payments market

Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank has launched a new Visa product that lets users settle credit card bills directly in bitcoin using balances held on the Bitbank exchange, in what the company and partners describe as a first for Japan’s domestic payments and credit market. The product, called the “EPOS Crypto Card for Bitbank” or EPOS CRYPTO card, is issued in partnership with EPOS Card, the fintech and credit card arm of Japanese retail group Marui Group, and is available to Bitbank users in Japan. Unlike typical crypto cards that require preloading or manual conversion, this card functions as a standard Visa credit card for everyday spending, but allows the monthly bill to be automatically repaid by selling bitcoin from the user’s Bitbank account at the prevailing exchange rate and converting it to yen. Bitbank and EPOS describe this as Japan’s first credit product where card settlement is directly linked to a crypto exchange account, effectively turning exchange-held BTC into a source of liquidity for routine consumer payments and positioning crypto as spendable capital rather than purely a speculative asset. The service currently supports bitcoin-only for bill payment, but offers 0.5% crypto cashback on spending, which users can receive in bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), or Astar (ASTR) deposited straight into their Bitbank accounts, with a roughly ¥2,000 crypto sign-up bonus also reported as an adoption incentive. The launch fits into Japan’s tightly regulated but gradually liberalizing crypto environment, where large financial groups like Marui are experimenting with integrating digital assets into mainstream payments infrastructure while navigating issues such as tax treatment of BTC sales used for repayment.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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