SoftBank’s PayPay Invests in Binance Japan to Expand in Crypto

SoftBank Group Corp.’s digital payment provider PayPay Corp. has taken a 40% stake in Binance’s Japan unit, seeking to capitalize on the country’s booming crypto market.

PayPay — a payments app operator owned by SoftBank’s Japanese telecom arm — announced the investment in Binance Japan Inc. in a joint statement on Thursday, without disclosing the amount paid for the stake. The companies plan to launch a service that will allow users to buy crypto through Binance using their PayPay accounts, they said.

Japan’s digital-assets market is heating up, with the value of crypto transactions in the country doubling ...