RetireJapan

Can anyone tell me if these major exchanges like SBI Rakuten and Monex have the ability to buy cryptocurrencies directly like BTC, ETH, etc.? Or you have to buy in a specific fund with a fee?

Otherwise, what are the safest (most established, longest running, highest volume, etc.) crypto brokerages that Japanese tend to use? I have found that most of the popular ones in US/CA do not allow Japan-based customers.

This was the most famous and established Bitcoin exchange in Japan.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mt-gox.asp

In Japan, your best bet is BitFlyer.

It's a Japanese company so knows how to handle all the Japanese regulatory stuff, and works well with Japanese bank accounts.

I use Liquid by Quoine. Been using it for the past 2 years with 0 issues. Has a nice English interface as well.

Thanks all. Feels like a global response!

I will check them out.

Pertaining to the OP's initial question, Monex has a "Crypto Trader" app that allows for the trading of BTC, ETH, and XRP, but this is a trading app that functions similar to FX trading, and thus is not suitable if you're interested in holding crypto as an asset class for any period of time. (It does advertise itself with fee-free trading though, which is interesting).

Monex bought CoinCheck (after they suffered a high profile hack a couple years ago), and as I had personally had been using both CoinCheck and Monex separately before the buyout, I was hoping for an integration, but aside from the trading app mentioned above (and the fact that you can now convert your Monex points into BTC and have them deposited into your CoinCheck account), it appears Monex is choosing to keep them separate.

As an aside, CoinCheck app is well designed, easy to use, and is fully bilingual, and I recommend it if you're interested in crypto, but not planning to trade heavily. I mention that because the fees they charge on trading anything other than BTC can be high (1-4%(!)) and are not readily transparent... you need to figure them out yourself by looking at the spread between buy/sell prices. (these high fees seem to be a common problem across most Japanese crypto exchanges)

CoinCheck looks to be the winner out of these suggestions based on the number of coins allowable, bilingual and has a hack in its history but paid back all users.

7-seasons.com wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:40 pm CoinCheck looks to be the winner out of these suggestions based on the number of coins allowable, bilingual and has a hack in its history but paid back all users.

I tried making an account with CoinCheck but 2 weeks have passed and my verification process is still under review. They don't even reply my messages. Is this normal?

kvn wrote: ↑Fri Jan 15, 2021 5:17 am I tried making an account with CoinCheck but 2 weeks have passed and my verification process is still under review. They don't even reply my messages. Is this normal?

Last company that happened to me with was Mt. Gox. Just saying

kvn wrote: ↑Fri Jan 15, 2021 5:17 am

7-seasons.com wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:40 pm CoinCheck looks to be the winner out of these suggestions based on the number of coins allowable, bilingual and has a hack in its history but paid back all users.

I tried making an account with CoinCheck but 2 weeks have passed and my verification process is still under review. They don't even reply my messages. Is this normal?

Have you tried Liquid by Quoine? I use them and the entire process was very smooth. Linking their website just in case:
https://www.liquid.com/ja/