Bitcoin corporate bond debuts in Japan

Financial information provider Fisco Ltd. has started experimenting with selling bitcoin-denominated, unsecured corporate bonds in Japan.

Last week, the Tokyo-based company issued a three-year bond worth 200 bitcoins to another firm in the Fisco group to test “the bonds’ potential to become a useful fundraising tool,” said Masayuki Tashiro, chief product officer of Fisco.

The bond, issued by the Fisco Cryptocurrency Exchange, pays a 3 percent coupon and returns the 200 bitcoins to the holder upon its maturity on August 10, 2022. The notes are currently worth $860,000 as of Friday’s trading, when the price of bitcoin holds at $4,300.

Tashiro told Bloomberg that the bond was designed “like a regular corporate note” to “satisfy regulatory requirements.”