Metaplanet Sets 1.6% Bitcoin Cashback on Japan Shareholder Card

Crypto News

Japan's crypto payment card market has expanded to six major products in 2026, headlined by Metaplanet's shareholder-only card that returns 1.6% of spending in Bitcoin (BTC). The lineup — spanning the Visa, Mastercard and JCB networks — converts blockchain holdings into fiat-equivalent payments at the till, so merchants settle in yen without ever handling crypto directly. Metaplanet's plan, outlined at its March shareholder meeting and aimed at a summer debut, has confirmed only the BTC reward rate and the shareholder requirement; annual fees, issuance costs, the card brand and service regions were still undisclosed as of August 2026. Binance Japan's JCB-branded card, issued by Life Card, pays 1.6% back in BNB, waives the first-year fee and charges ¥1,650 thereafter unless annual spending exceeds ¥100,000. HashPort's Visa card, issued by Nudge, defers payment and is repaid in JPYC, a yen-pegged stablecoin engineered to hold a 1:1 value — a reserve-style design distinct from the code-managed pegs of algorithmic stablecoins — while returning 0.3% in JPYC, charging a ¥2,500 issuance fee and requiring an AI-driven credit review with results typically delivered within two business days. Bitget Wallet's Mastercard version is free to issue and maintain, accepts USDT, USDC, ETH and SOL top-ups and rebates up to 3% — on a 2% base rate — in BTC, gold, US equities or USDC, with Japan listed as a supported region on the official card page and the product embedded in Bitget's self-custody app rather than an exchange account — closer to the self-sovereign ethos of the emerging AI crypto wallet space, though Bitget does not brand it AI-driven. Tria Pay's Visa card covers more than 1,000 tokens across 200-plus blockchains — Bitcoin, Solana and a long tail of altcoin assets — settling each purchase in USDC or USDT with cross-border fees capped at 1% and foreign-exchange costs up to 3%; its virtual, plastic and metal tiers cost $25, $109 and $250, United States residents are excluded and official materials do not list Japan as a supported region. Startale's Visa card, built around Sony-linked Soneium assets and rewards in the network's native USDSC stablecoin, remains at the pre-registration stage. Unlike a one-off airdrop, these rewards accrue with every purchase — and under Japanese tax rules each card transaction can itself be a taxable disposal of crypto.

In the United States, the same payment logic is colliding with market-structure legislation. Community banks have spent weeks lobbying Senate Republicans to rewrite the stablecoin reward provisions of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — known as the CLARITY Act — arguing that incentives on payment tokens would drain deposits from locally owned, lower-capital institutions and compress their lending capacity. Because these lenders fund loans primarily with customer deposits, any migration of balances toward reward-bearing stablecoins would hit local credit availability first. The issue had appeared settled after banks and the crypto industry negotiated a compromise, but the lobbying wave has reopened it. Republican senators Josh Hawley and Jerry Moran have each said they will vote against the bill unless its text is revised to resolve the rewards question, and fellow Republican Mike Rounds acknowledged the concern resonates because senators know these community bankers personally. The current draft already reflects the earlier compromise: rewards for simply holding stablecoins were stripped out, but the bill still permits use-based rewards tied to payments — the mechanism its backers say will push stablecoins into everyday settlement. Smaller lenders are unconvinced. Community Spirit Bank chief executive Brad Bolton argued that it takes bankers from remote, low-profile institutions to show senators what the law would actually do to deposit bases. The rewards dispute compounds a second unresolved obstacle: an ethics provision tied to ongoing negotiations with the White House, on which no agreement has been reached, while Senate Democrats hold separate objections of their own. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has proposed a September floor vote, yet with Republican support fracturing and two core issues unresolved, the bill's near-term passage prospects have deteriorated sharply. The stakes reach beyond banking: the CLARITY Act is the vehicle meant to define how digital assets — including every altcoin — are regulated in the US market.

COINOTAG's analysis is that these two developments form a single arc: consumer payment rails are scaling faster than the rules governing them. Japan's card cohort competes openly on reward mechanics, paying users in Bitcoin (BTC), BNB or JPYC, while the US fight turns on precisely that mechanic. The primary document at issue is the CLARITY Act's bill text, not a final rule: as drafted it bars rewards for simply holding stablecoins but permits use-based rewards, and as pending legislation it binds no issuer or bank until enacted. Whether September produces a vote or another delay, the reward clause has become the clearest fault line in stablecoin policy.