Major Breakthrough for Japanese ETFs: BTC and XRP to List on the Tokyo Stock Exchange!

A historic moment: Japan's SBI Group has officially applied to the Financial Services Agency to launch BTC and XRP spot ETFs, planned for listing and trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Simultaneously, SBI has also proposed a public trust scheme combining BTC and gold.

Looking back, almost all ETF products submitted by SBI have been approved - meaning the probability of this batch of ETFs passing is extremely high.

More importantly: ETFs will be subject to a financial product tax rate of approximately 20%, rather than the miscellaneous income tax rate of up to 55% applicable to non-ETF crypto trading. This systemic difference has long been a key factor hindering the large-scale entry of Japanese funds into the crypto space.

Now, once the ETF is approved, it will be equivalent to opening a green channel for Japanese investors to "directly buy crypto at a low tax rate." Traditional funds that could only invest in crypto assets through "detours," such as buying MicroStrategy (because it holds Bitcoin and is subject to a 20% tax rate), will now be able to enter the market directly.

This is undoubtedly a huge systemic negative for Japan's "MicroStrategy concept stocks" and compliant exchanges that survive on tax arbitrage.

Because in the first half of the year, these funds were playing tax arbitrage, and the launch of the ETF is equivalent to "the detour game ending," and real public funds and financial conglomerates will begin to directly hold spot Bitcoin and XRP.

Combined with the ETF policies being promoted simultaneously in South Korea, this round of large Japanese and Korean funds is likely to be a key variable for the second half of the market.