Eole Officially Announces the “Neo Crypto Bank Initiative”

Eole Inc. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Yugo Takino; Securities Code: 2334; hereinafter “Eole”) held a strategic press conference on October 14 to announce its new digital asset financial business initiative, officially unveiling the “Neo Crypto Bank Concept (NCBC)” — a next-generation financial model integrating AI and blockchain technologies.

At the core of this initiative is a super app designed to seamlessly integrate asset custody, investment, payments, remittances, and external service connections into a single, unified platform. Eole aims to capture 1% of Japan’s cashless payment market, equivalent to approximately ¥1.2 trillion in transaction volume, by the end of 2027.

President and CEO Yugo Takino emphasized that Japan’s technological implementation has become overly defensive, slowing the development of new trust-based infrastructures. Amid rapid yen depreciation and rising prices, he noted that countries such as the United States and China are already restructuring their financial systems around digital assets, asserting that Japan must shift from being a recipient of innovation to a creator.
Eole positions itself not merely as a company that holds digital assets, but as one that utilizes them as strategic financial instruments to build the next generation of economic infrastructure.

Specific Initiatives

At the heart of the Neo Crypto Bank Concept (NCBC) is the development of a Web3.0 super app. Built on a self-custody model, the platform will integrate functions for asset management, operation, domestic and international payments and remittances, and external service connectivity — such as content distribution, hotel check-ins, and e-commerce.
Leveraging AI-powered recommendation systems, the app will enable users to manage, invest, and spend assets efficiently and seamlessly within a single ecosystem.

The NCBC roadmap will progress through four stages:

1. Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) – accumulating digital assets as corporate financial reserves.
2. Digital Asset Lending (DAL) – deploying those assets through lending functions.
3. Digital Asset Management (DAM) – expanding investment and operational capabilities.
4. Digital Asset Utilization (DAU) – achieving social and business implementation of the platform.

On the partnership front, Eole collaborates with Slash Vision, provider of an encrypted asset-based payment card, to establish a direct payment link between users’ wallets and everyday transactions. In the lending sector, the company partners with J-CAM, operator of BitLending, to integrate asset operation and payment features within the NCBC ecosystem.
Additionally, Eole strengthens compliance and liquidity management through a partnership with FINX JCrypto, a registered crypto asset exchange service provider, while also working with UPBOND, which offers a self-sovereign identity authentication infrastructure, and ZUU, a leading fintech firm, to expand collaborative financial solutions.

Through this multi-pronged approach, Eole seeks to establish a foundation for a trust-driven digital financial ecosystem that merges technological innovation with next-generation financial infrastructure.

Eole aims to launch its super app by fiscal year 2027. Throughout 2026, the company plans to sequentially roll out Bitcoin investment products, lending services, and crypto asset payment cards, leading up to the full-scale release of the integrated application in 2027.

As previously announced, Eole targets 1% of Japan’s cashless payment market in both transaction volume and value, estimating a total of approximately ¥1.2 trillion in handled payments. In the initial phase, the company projects around 5 million transactions, backed by a 20% liquidity reserve — an amount expected to reach ¥16 billion (approximately USD 100 million). To meet this requirement, the company intends to secure funding through planned capital procurement.

On the financial side, Eole will begin gradually purchasing Bitcoin from the third quarter of 2025, aiming to hold ¥4.3 billion worth of crypto assets by the end of 2027.

During the Q&A session, when asked about the detailed conditions and KPIs for the lending service, executives stated that these will be disclosed within the current fiscal year, following regulatory review and legal clarification.

Corporate Comments

President and CEO Yugo Takino stated,

“We aim to establish a significant presence in the blockchain and financial sectors, making a world where people manage and settle payments with digital assets an everyday reality.”

Shinpei Hanashima, Executive Officer, CCO, and Head of the Digital Asset Financial Division, added that the combination of AI and smart contracts will drive the expansion of “payment-triggered services,” where functions such as escrow and automatic refunds will become standard in financial systems.

He also emphasized that by building and utilizing domestically located AI inference data centers, Eole can offer a low-latency, high-security financial infrastructure without relying on foreign cloud providers. This approach reinforces both data governance and trust, ensuring stable and compliant service delivery within Japan.

In the panel discussion, experts noted that Japan’s regulatory environment for stablecoins has entered a new phase — moving from “whether to participate” to “how to participate.” They also pointed out that as publicly listed companies expand their crypto asset holdings, transparency toward investors and rigorous asset-liability management (ALM)will be essential.

Taking these insights into account, Eole positions itself as a company that will present a new social infrastructure merging AI and blockchain, aiming to establish a next-generation model for digital asset finance.

Image: Courtesy of press release

Related Articles

• Eole Partners with Slash Vision to Strengthen Integration Between Lending and Payment Services

• Eole Prepares to Enter the Crypto Asset Business, Raising Approximately ¥420 Million from Web3 Fund