Industry News

Ticket Camp becomes first Japanese ticket site to accept bitcoin

Ticket Camp, Japan’s largest secondary marketplace, has become the first major ticketing operator in the country to begin accepting bitcoin.

The Japanese resale platform, which is operated by Hunza Co and owned by Mixi Group, processes close to 5.8bn yen ($53m/£41m/€45m) per month, and boasts more than five million active users.

The website’s bitcoin payments are processed by one of Japan’s largest bitcoin exchanges Coincheck, which claims to have signed up over 5,000 merchants across Japan to accept the digital currency already.

Ticket Camp said customers can use a Coincheck wallet or any other bitcoin wallet by scanning the QR code displayed at the time of payment. It added that bitcoin settlement is immediate.

Ticket Camp customers can also pay by using credit cards and mobile payments such as Pay-easy and Apple Pay, as well as in-person options at retail outlets Lawson, Family Mart, Circle K and Ministop.

Ticket Camp uses an escrow system where Hunza holds the payment until the tickets arrive in the hands of the buyer, ensuring safe and secure transactions.

Japan is the most advanced country in applying cryptocurrency as a legal means of payment. BitFlyer Inc., a virtual currency exchange startup service in Japan, saw its subscriber increase threefold in the past year from 200,000 to 600,000 consumers.

Image: Jason Benjamin