A joint venture between Wirex and SBI Holdings will bring Dash-backed debit cards to Japanese markets.

Wirex, a UK-based cryptocurrency debit card and exchange service, announced a joint venture with SBI Holdings. This partnership will lead to yen-denominated debit cards and cryptocurrency gateways, leading to growth into Japanese markets. This will eventually lead to a greater expansion throughout Asia and crypto-backed cards available denominated in more fiat currencies.

Wirex-Dash partnership to grow Dash’s Japan presence and market standing

Earlier this month, Wirex, which was a speaker at the first Dash conference in London, announced a strategic partnership with Dash. This will include integrating Dash as the first non-Bitcoin currency supported directly within Wirex’s wallet, making it available for use with a new line of contactless cards to be rolled out this year. In the official announcement, Wirex mentioned the SBI partnership, and strongly hinted at its potential to grow Dash markets in Japan and its effect on Dash’s value:

“SBI Investments which funded Wirex with $3million earlier in 2017 is working on a cryptocurrency exchange with deep roots in the Japanese economy where cryptocurrencies are recognised as legal tender. Our new legal entity and continued growth in Japan will help increase adoption of Dash throughout the fast growing Japanese customer base.

For crypto investors; we expect this partnership to support the continued rise in Dash far beyond the current $300 level.”

At present, following a dip and recovery due to Bitcoin’s Bitcoin Gold hard fork and chain split, Dash is again valued close to $300. A significant expansion into Asian markets has the potential to drive this much higher.

Dash debit cards struggle, fiat gateways grow

The greater Dash network previously prioritized integration into several debit card providers in order to make the currency as easily spendable as possible, even directly funding several options. However, likely do to complications arising through issuer and regulator issues, few reliable options remain, potentially frustrating Dash users who highly prioritized this feature.

Despite debit card setbacks, however, Dash remains easier to acquire and offload than ever with several recent fiat trading pair integrations, including Quoinex, Coin Rail, and possibly BitFlyer. Additionally, both Festy and Alt Thirty Six are in the process of integrating Dash for easy point-of-sale payments, skipping the fiat conversion step used with debit cards.