Japan: GMO Payment Gateway to support Bitcoin payments

The company has recently announced that its payment solution, GMO Payment Gateway (“GMO-PG”), will support Bitcoin payments alongside standard payment options like credit cards and bank transfers starting in November 2014.

This is the result of an agreement between GMO-PG and BitFlyer, a Bitcoin marketplace and settlement service. GMO-PG also made an undisclosed investment in bitFlyer, which previously raised USD 1.6 million in July 2014.

Founded in 1995, GMO-PG specializes in providing payment services to ecommerce platforms and mobile content providers. GMO-PG currently has more than 48,000 merchant customers, but the use of Bitcoin requires both parties in a transaction to have a Bitcoin wallet, so it is unlikely that users will be able to pay in Bitcoin at all 48,000 stores.

BitFlyer is the leader of the Japan Authority of Digital Assets. The firm’s official legal representation comes from Nishimura & Asahi, widely considered to be one of the top law firms in Japan.