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Mercari, which launched its Bitcoin trading service in March 2023, has become a hot topic in the domestic cryptocurrency industry, with over 1 million users in just 7 months.
At the center of this rapid growth is Nakamura Keita, who became CEO in April 2023. As he approaches the one-year anniversary of his appointment, we take a closer look at his thoughts on the Bitcoin payment service that has finally been launched, as well as Mercari's future strategy and outlook.
It's been almost a year since you became CEO in April last year. Looking back on the service development and business so far, what kind of year has it been?
Nakamura Keita (hereinafter, Nakamura): NFTs and crypto assets have had quite a few ups and downs, so I think the timing just before I took office and just before the release of the Mercoin service was the worst, and it was a pretty tough situation.
However, we gradually gained momentum after we started, and as physical ETFs started to pick up steam around the end of last year, we were able to clearly demonstrate our position as a mass-adopted cryptocurrency in Japan. I think it's been that kind of year.
Looking back on the past year, was there anything that was difficult?
Nakamura: Rather than saying it was difficult, the industry has picked up speed more than we expected and our customers have been quick to accept us, so if anything, it was the pressure to speed up our next move.
On top of that, we had to think about making it meaningful, so we spent a lot of time on that.
Customer surveys also show that the service is highly popular among users, but what do you think are the reasons for this?
Nakamura: For customers who had not been onboarded before, we focused on figuring out what the hurdles were and how to overcome them.
For example, for people who think that opening an account seems difficult, or that they want to try but are afraid, we designed a service that focuses on removing those challenges, and I think the biggest factor was that we communicated that to them.
For example, opening an account takes as little as 30 seconds, which is an experience that I have never seen at other exchanges. In that sense, I think it is revolutionary.
You have announced a payment service that actually uses Bitcoin, but could you tell us again what results you are aiming to achieve with this service and the significance of using Bitcoin?
Nakamura: I think the key point is "What is Bitcoin?" and we want to clearly show how to hold and use it as a cryptocurrency within our service.
So we thought it was best to show customers the purpose of it when they ask "What is it for? What can you do with it?" and that's why we introduced the payment service first. We hope that by helping customers understand the purpose and concept of cryptocurrency through this payment service, it will become an opportunity for new entrants.
Do you have any goals for what percentage of Mercari users you would like to see use this payment service?
Nakamura: We're not sure about that yet, but we hope that it will serve as an opportunity for people to use it for shopping and enjoy the concept of cryptocurrencies themselves, so we don't want to use things like payment ratios as an indicator.
Rather than that, I think it's really important to promote it, or to spread the concept of being able to use Bitcoin.
In an interview last year, you said that "Ethereum might be the next supported stock," so is this something you would like to increase exponentially?
Nakamura: We would like to take on new challenges as well. However, we don't think we will be adding 5-6 new stocks every year like other exchanges are doing.
Is the idea that you carefully select and choose products based on their utility for users?
Nakamura: That's right. I think the more users there are, the more confused and confused they become.
We don't want to deviate from our concept, and we think this should be a service for people who are experiencing cryptocurrencies for the first time, so we want to create a structure that helps people understand the concept, and that there is meaning in having it.
Mercoin will be focusing on being "discovered" in the future, so could you tell us more about this "discovery" aspect?
Nakamura: What we're doing now is like creating an entrance to the entrance to technologies like Web 3.0 and blockchain, and I think our role is to help people take this first step.
However, I also want people to use this as a stepping stone to gradually step into the next step, the world of Web 3.0, and I think it's very important for people to be "discovered" as crypto assets. Another thing is that we also want to clearly challenge ourselves in areas other than crypto assets.
You also mentioned that you would like to focus on the ownership and use of digital assets.
Nakamura: I think that NFTs will be at the core when we turn our attention to digital assets, but they are still in the process of evolving from the collectible realm, so we are still exploring what they can do.
However, I expect that things with clear utility will gradually start to appear this year, such as Web 3.0 games and blockchain games, or games like NOT A HOTEL where rights are actually granted to tokens, so I think what we need to do is make these things available within Mercari.
Our plan is to expand this development, and I think it will ties into the story of "discovery" and "use" that we are setting out here.
Is this your next vision after "being found"?
Nakamura: We want to broaden our scope in terms of being discovered, and have people experience its utility.
That includes increasing the number of crypto-assets other than Bitcoin, and it's also true that customers will find it useful in the investment sector, so we'd like to gradually consider ways to meet those needs.
You are participating in the joint study of XJPY and XUSD, but what was your intention and purpose in deciding to participate?
Nakamura: The biggest thing is that stable coins have been legalized in Japan.
We also think that stable coins are not yet a solution that directly benefits customers, but at the same time, we need to think about when and how they should be introduced in the medium to long term.
To do that, it is important for us to use them ourselves and communicate with various people, including the working group, to think about them together. I think the biggest thing is that we participated for that purpose.
This initiative has players with a wealth of knowledge, such as Progmat and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, so the background to this is that we thought that by teaming up with them we could consider stable coins at a deeper level.
Please tell us your thoughts on the current situation in the Web 3.0 field.
Nakamura: Personally, I think it can be broadly divided into two areas: NFTs and digital assets, and crypto assets. Digital assets have a clear utility, and NFTs and other things that have value when used will increase rapidly from now on, or rather, they won't become popular unless they increase.
I think it's been the last two or three years since the industry realized this, so I'm really looking forward to everyone facing this issue, and I think we're in a situation where people are starting to face it.
That's why I can relate to the efforts that NOT A HOTEL and others are making, and I think it will probably be a good fit for our service.
I also think that blockchain games have gradually changed from an era where they were games to make money to an era where people are first looking at games as fun, and major game companies are actually starting to move globally, so I think there will be a big change between this year and next year.
I think that such things will be driven by technology, but at that time, infrastructure is important, and it is also important to lower the hurdles so that casual customers can easily get involved, and we want to play that role.
Also, this year I want to make our company one that attracts attention not only in Japan but also globally.
Finally, please tell us about your future prospects and the missions and goals that you think you need to accomplish by 2024.
Nakamura: What we clearly want to aim for is to make Japan the number one place globally where crypto assets are actually used.
We don't just want to lead the excitement around crypto assets in Japan, but also want to achieve results that will be seen as amazing in the world of Web 3.0 and challenge ourselves to change the perception of Japan.
The other thing is the digital field. I think that moving from crypto assets to digital assets is one of the big challenges this year, so we want to work on both crypto assets and digital assets.
Keita Nakamura
CEO of Mercoin, Inc. While attending university, he worked as an intern at CyberAgent, where he launched a programming education service, and at DeNA, where he introduced a sentiment analysis platform for video services. After that, he joined Mercari's research institute "R4D" as an intern. After joining the company as a new graduate in 2018, he worked as a blockchain engineer on the "mercariX" project being carried out within R4D. He then moved to group company Merpay, where he was in charge of distributed ledger development, the AML SYSTEM team, and the PM for the new financial business (Credit Design). He joined Mercoin in April 2021, and after serving as Director and CPO of the Product department, he has been in his current position since April 2023. He is currently 30 years old.
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