Tokyo, April 27, 2026. Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank and EPOS Card Co., a subsidiary of retail conglomerate Marui Group, have launched what they describe as Japan's first credit card allowing users to settle monthly bills directly from a crypto exchange account. The EPOS CRYPTO Card for bitbank runs on Visa rails, carries no annual fee, and went live seventeen days after Japan's cabinet approved a sweeping reclassification of crypto assets under securities law.

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The card's central feature is an opt-in Bitcoin settlement mechanic. Each billing cycle, cardholders can choose to pay their balance either from a traditional bank account in Japanese yen or from their Bitbank crypto holdings. Only Bitcoin (BTC) is eligible for settlement. When a user selects that option, Bitbank automatically liquidates the required amount of BTC at what it describes as a predetermined rate to cover the outstanding balance, though the precise rate-setting mechanism has not been detailed publicly in Bitbank's published terms. The card cannot be used to directly purchase cryptocurrency.

The card also pays 0.5% cashback in crypto on eligible purchases, with holders able to choose monthly between Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), or Astar (ASTR), Japan's most prominent domestically built blockchain project and a smart contract platform. New cardholders receive a welcome bonus of 2,000 yen (roughly $12.60) in crypto, with a launch campaign pushing that figure to 4,000 yen (roughly $25.20).

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Bitbank is one of the country's top five exchanges by market share, holding approximately 10% of Japan's domestic crypto volume and processing around $1 billion in transactions per month across its 2 million registered users.

The EPOS Card network adds significant distribution weight: Marui Group's card subsidiary has tens of millions of existing cardholders across Japan, giving the product an immediate path to consumers who have no prior crypto account. Jun Kuwabara, Executive Officer at Bitbank, characterized the partnership as "Japan's first initiative" enabling users to use crypto in daily transactions beyond simply holding it. Sheetan Ketony, President of Visa Worldwide Japan, said the company expects "new options like payments and rewards using cryptocurrencies will become more familiar to a wider range of people."

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The card launched against a notable backdrop in Japanese crypto regulation. On April 10, 2026, Japan's cabinet approved an amendment reclassifying crypto assets from payment tools under the Payment Services Act to financial instruments under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), the same legal framework governing stocks and bonds. The new rules will bring stricter disclosure requirements, insider trading prohibitions, and higher penalties, and are expected to take effect in fiscal 2027. Observers have noted that the timing suggests the card entered the market under the existing, lighter-touch regulatory framework, ahead of those stricter rules taking hold.

Bitcoin itself traded at approximately $77,216 on April 27 and has gained 13.6% month-to-date in April 2026, its strongest monthly return in over a year, with circulating supply having crossed 20 million BTC. For users opting into BTC settlement, that market context shapes how much of their holdings would be liquidated each billing cycle.

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Users considering the BTC settlement feature should be aware of one significant friction point. Under Japan's current tax treatment, crypto is classified as miscellaneous income. Each time a user settles a bill in Bitcoin, that transaction constitutes a taxable sale event, potentially requiring individual tax reporting through Japan's annual self-assessment filing. Bitbank's own support documentation flags this requirement. Whether casual consumers will work through the tax implications or simply default to yen payments remains a key variable in how widely the settlement feature actually gets used.

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The product offers a practical template for other markets where crypto exchange licensing and card-issuer infrastructure can be combined. In South Asia, Pakistan lifted a seven-year crypto banking ban in April 2026 and passed its Virtual Assets Act 2026, but no comparable card product exists yet in Pakistan or India, and India has not passed comprehensive crypto legislation.

In Africa, crypto adoption grew 52% year over year with $205 billion in on-chain value recorded between July 2024 and June 2025, but BTC-settled credit cards remain a distant prospect. Credit card penetration is low across much of the continent, mobile money dominates payments, and stablecoins account for roughly 45% of Sub-Saharan crypto volume. Formal VASP licensing frameworks are actively developing in specific markets, including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Mauritius. A stablecoin-settled prepaid card is a more likely near-term development in those markets than a BTC settlement product.

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Marui Group has stated plans to expand the list of cryptocurrencies eligible for both settlement and rewards over time. How quickly that expansion moves, and whether the incoming FIEA framework reshapes the product's legal structure, will determine whether the EPOS CRYPTO Card becomes a durable retail fixture or an early experiment conceived for a regulatory environment that may look quite different before the product fully matures.

The global crypto credit card market is projected at $2.15 billion in 2026. Monthly transaction volumes exceeded $606 million as of March 2026, roughly three times the level recorded a year earlier, a trajectory that gives products like the EPOS CRYPTO Card a substantial and fast-growing market to grow into.