Public companies in the US that bought up millions in Bitcoin and Ethereum have hit the skids this winter.
In Japan, however, a much different trend is emerging, according to Yu Oki, formerly the head of the Solana Foundation’s Superteam Japan and Allied Architects’ new “chief crypto officer.”
“Spring may be coming for DATs in Japan,” Oki told the Japanese media outlet CoinPost.
The bet, suggests Oki, is based on Japanese firms historically being able to improve on American models.
Oki’s Allied Architects, a Tokyo-based marketing firm with a market cap of around $33.5 million, is the latest to join the craze. The firm announced its plans for a digital asset treasury last month.
The company also said it will build a crypto portfolio, hinting at forthcoming purchases of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. It is yet to disclose how much money it will spend on crypto purchases.
“US DATs crashed at the end of last year, but Japanese DAT companies that emerged around the same time performed well. There’s a historical pattern where America invents something — and then Japan imports and improves it.”
Japanese firms have begun 2026 with bullish confidence, despite a wider crypto market slide.
Last month, Metaplanet, the largest non-US DAT in the world, announced it had bought $451 million worth of Bitcoin at the end of 2025.
The firm aims to hold 1% of the world’s Bitcoin supply by 2027.
Optimism in Japan
Allied Architects isn’t alone in its new year pivot.
More Japanese companies will try to reinvent themselves as crypto treasury companies in the months ahead, Shiv Shankar, CEO of the decentralised blockchain marketplace Boundless and the former head of compliance at Coinbase Japan, told DL News.
“It’s a great hedging strategy against changes in the global economic climate, especially with the yen depreciating,” Shankar said.
Shankar said Japanese firms have realised cryptoassets do not follow the same patterns as Japanese stocks or bonds. “This is exactly why crypto is becoming a serious diversification play for corporations,” he said.
Japan’s financial regulators insist that listed firms demonstrate balance sheet stability and provide proof that they use investor protection and risk management measures, Yu Hu, founder and CEO of Kaito, an AI-powered search engine for the crypto sector, told DL News.
“That naturally limits how widely Bitcoin-heavy treasury strategies can be adopted across corporate Japan,” Hu said.
Tech firms and companies with a global reach will be among those making the biggest moves in the DAT space in Japan this year, he forecasted.
Firms that can afford to take a calculated risk on crypto, rather than try to reinvent themselves as crypto companies, could also be set for a successful 2026, Hu said.
Tokyo Stock Exchange data makes grim reading for Japanese firms that have pivoted to crypto. Metaplanet has seen its share price drop by almost 17% over the past month.
Over the same period, smaller competitors, such as the energy provider Remixpoint, the fashion retailer ANAP Holdings, and the gaming firm Gumi, have seen their share prices fall by between 3% and 14%.
In the same period, by contrast, the Nikkei 225, an index of leading shares on the exchange, has risen by 5%.
Japanese firms remain undaunted by the financial weather, say experts, and will move as quickly as regulators let them.
“As regulations evolve and more banks are permitted to provide custody and operational services for digital assets, companies will be more inclined to hold tokens they actively use,” Sota Watanabe, founder of the blockchain developer Astar Network and CEO of Startale Group, told DL News.
