Japanese Giant Recruit Holdings Invests in Blockstack’s Cryptocurrency
The Japanese human resource firm, Recruit Holdings, valued at $50 billion, has invested in Blockstack’s STACK tokens. This move will pave the way for Blockstack to tap into the Japanese market. Earlier this year, the HR firm had declared their investment plan of a $25 million blockchain fund in blockchain and cryptocurrency projects.
The public benefit corporation (PBC), Blockstack, received this funding shortly after acquiring its first investment from Asian investors. As a part of the investment deal made on Aug. 22 STACK tokens were purchased by Recruit Holdings.
Recruit Holdings has been very active in the U.S. and the blockchain markets. Two of the firm’s largest U.S. acquisitions include Indeed and Glassdoor which were acquired for $1 billion and $1.2 billion respectively. Indeed was acquired in 2012 while Glassdoor in 2018.
Earlier in 2019, Recruit Holdings also declared the launch of a $25 million blockchain fund to invest in blockchain and cryptocurrency projects.
Blockstack’s CEO and co-founder Muneeb Ali commented on US-based startups typically partnering with businesses in Japan while discussing the advantages of crypto ventures in the Asian country. He stated: “Japan is a very interesting market for crypto because it has clarity around regulations. It is legal to own and trade crypto assets, but only those whitelisted by the regulators.”
Ali has also remarked on Asia being one of the central crypto players and Blockstack’s desire to expand its roots further into the market. He said: “Asia is an important market for Blockstack, as Asian countries have arguably the most significant penetration for both crypto users and developers. […] The Asian strategic round led by Hashkey and SNZ marks a new chapter, and we’re excited to expand our developer outreach and grow the Blockstack community and usage in Asia.”
In July, Blockstack PBC led the first token offering approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), making a $28M digital token offering following Regulation A+.
Blockstack began a partnership with the Lambda Faculty as well. Lambda Faculty is to conduct classes whilst Blockstack will provide tutorials and products on how one can code using their apps.
The CEO of Blockstack said in an interview:
“We plan to reach Japanese developers through Recruit’s help and introduce our developer libraries and technology to them. We already have a Japanese version of our whitepaper that accompanied the announcement in Japan.”
