Animoca Brands Japan Strengthens Its Push into the BTCFi Space

Animoca Brands Japan entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in December 2025 with Bifrost, a developer of decentralized Bitcoin finance (BTCFi) protocols, and Babylon Labs, the provider of the “Trustless BTC Vaults” technology. Through this strategic collaboration, the three companies aim to support publicly listed companies in leveraging Bitcoin more effectively.

Growing Demand for Digital Asset Management Among Public Companies and Rising Interest in Web3.0

In recent years, an increasing number of companies—including publicly listed firms—have been exploring entry into the Web3.0 space. As part of their treasury strategies, more companies are beginning to hold digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC). However, due to the complexity of crypto asset management and the challenges of risk control, many companies still lack sufficient expertise and operational know-how.

Against this backdrop, Animoca Brands Japan officially launched its “Digital Asset Treasury Management Support” business for publicly listed companies in September 2025. Leveraging the global experience and expertise cultivated by Animoca Brands, the initiative provides comprehensive support for corporate digital asset management—ranging from asset custody to more active strategies such as staking and lending.

Bifrost is developing a multi-chain Layer 1 blockchain that supports both EVM-compatible and non-EVM environments. The platform offers “BTCFi,” a decentralized Bitcoin finance framework that enables the issuance of a U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin backed by native BTC, known as BtcUSD, as well as yield-generating opportunities for Bitcoin assets. Through its collaboration with Bifrost, Animoca Brands Japan plans to assess the applicability of BTCFi in the Japanese market and support publicly listed companies in generating returns on their Bitcoin treasury assets.

Future Developments and Outlook

Babylon Labs is a technology company developing Bitcoin security-sharing protocols, including Bitcoin staking, as well as its “Trustless BTC Vaults” solution.

Trustless BTC Vaults allow Bitcoin to be locked on the Bitcoin mainnet under self-custody, enabling BTC to be used as collateral in DeFi services on other blockchains without relying on centralized bridges or wrapped tokens.

Through its partnership with Babylon Labs, Animoca Brands Japan aims to evaluate this self-custodial BTCFi solution in the Japanese market, opening a secure pathway for companies to unlock the liquidity of their Bitcoin holdings and deploy them across Web3 services.

Looking ahead, Animoca Brands Japan intends to examine how the technologies of both partners can be adapted for Japan while integrating them into its digital asset treasury management business to further strengthen its service offerings.

These partnerships are expected to provide publicly listed companies with secure and efficient methods for managing Bitcoin assets, preventing idle capital and improving capital efficiency. Ultimately, such initiatives are anticipated to accelerate corporate entry into Web3.0 and contribute to the expansion of Japan’s Web3.0 ecosystem.

About Animoca Brands Japan

Animoca Brands Japan is a strategic subsidiary of Animoca Brands, a globally recognized Web3.0 company. It was established in October 2021 with the mission of supporting Japanese intellectual property (IP) and content holders in expanding their presence and initiatives in the global Web3.0 ecosystem.

Since February 2025, Animoca Brands Japan has been offering “MetaChara,” a digital acrylic stand service featuring anime and manga characters. In September 2025, the company launched its Digital Asset Treasury Management Support business, providing comprehensive assistance to publicly listed companies—from strategy formulation to execution—for managing and operating digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.

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