Please tell us your thoughts on the outlook for the Web3.0 field in 2025.
Shinsuke Sato (hereinafter, Sato): Looking at it globally, it will be a year in which various discussions will become active, centered around US President Trump. Among these will be talk about meme coins.
As Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has also said, meme coins are one element of the larger tokenization, and while there are often whispers about concerns about fraud, this is merely one distortion. Rather, it is important that value is attached to everything that has not been visible until now, and I think the current movement is just the beginning of that.
As for Japan, I think it has a slightly different nature from these global movements. Specifically, for Japan, I think this will be a year that will be a catalyst for integrating with existing industries in a way that complies with strict regulations.
I think it is good that tokenization is progressing in Japan in compliance with regulations, such as the tokenization of RWA (real-world assets). On the other hand, I personally find it sad that it is limited to PoC between companies. We want large companies to create more consumer-oriented transactions, and that is why we are working on the Slash Card.
It was announced that the Slash Card, a cryptocurrency credit card, will be issued by the end of June this year. Tell us about your plans and strategy after it is issued.
Sato: This time, Orico has stepped up as the BIN sponsor, Aikitas will issue the cards, and we at Slash are in charge of program management, development, and operations.
We think we have a solid foundation in place to roll out the Slash Card in Japan, and we also think it was a great success that we have made it possible to create a cryptocurrency credit card, something that no one has been able to achieve before, by linking it with a self-custody wallet.
We have even obtained a patent for the system that allows us to issue cryptocurrency credit cards by utilizing a self-custody wallet without violating various regulations, such as custody regulations.
