SoftBank Group company PayPay, one of Japan’s largest digital payment apps, has acquired a 40% equity stake in Binance Japan as part of a new strategic partnership aimed at blending cashless payments with access to cryptocurrencies. The move brings together PayPay’s 70 million users and its widespread merchant network with Binance’s blockchain infrastructure, integrating PayPay Money, a smartphone-based digital wallet, into Binance Japan to allow users to buy crypto and withdraw funds through the wallet. The companies, plan to co-develop products that will allow users to seamlessly buy, sell, and store digital assets, according to an announcement. "This strategic alliance represents a significant step toward the future of digital finance in Japan," said Takeshi Chino, General Manager for Binance Japan. "By combining PayPay's extensive user scale with Binance's innovative technology, we will be able to make Web3 more accessible to people across the country and deliver secure, seamless digital assets services. Binance Japan will continue to drive the growth of Web3 ecosystem in Japan," Chino added. The move comes as Japan increasingly adopts cryptocurrencies, with several publicly traded companies in the country now running bitcoin treasuries. The largest of these companies, Metaplanet, has 30,823 BTC as of writing. Japanese startup JPYC is reportedly planning to issue the first stablecoin pegged to the yen this year.