Crypto in Osaka: Japan's second crypto city, for residents and visitors

Osaka at a glance

Japan licenses crypto exchanges through regional finance bureaus, and the register tells a striking story. Twenty-five of the 27 registered crypto-asset exchange service providersCompanies registered with the FSA, via a regional finance bureau, to buy, sell and hold crypto for Japan residents. are filed with the Kanto bureau and based in Tokyo. The other two are filed with the Kinki Local Finance Bureau and based in Osaka Prefecture: Zaif, with its registered office in Kishiwada, and Gaia, in Nishi-ku, Osaka city. Even Binance Japan, now in Tokyo, started life as a Kinki registration in 2017.

For a resident, this mostly does not matter: you buy crypto through an app, and a Tokyo exchange serves you in Osaka just as well. Where Osaka genuinely differs is on the street. It has more listed crypto ATMs than Tokyo, a tourist-district machine in Namba, the legacy of the Expo 2025 digital wallet, and a regional banking scene with its own quirks. This guide focuses on those local details and links out for the generic steps.

Osaka also has a large international population: 375,319 foreign residents at the end of 2025, the second-highest in Japan, plus the visitors who arrive through Kansai International Airport. We have written the page with both groups in mind.

Bitcoin ATMs in Osaka: Namba, Shinmachi and the Tennoji question

Two operators matter here. Gaia, the Osaka exchange, runs machines it calls BTMsGaia's name for its crypto exchange machines: ATM-style kiosks that swap cash and crypto.. COINHUB, a Tokyo-registered exchange (Kanto No. 00013), has announced a national network. Here is the status as of our check.

The Namba machine is the one most visitors will walk past: it sits inside Travel Hub Namba in the heart of the Minami tourist district. Gaia's own instructions explain how it works, and they split cleanly into two modes. Without registering, guests (tourists included) can only sell crypto for yen; the flow asks for a phone number that can receive SMS, a scan of an IC-chip passport (residents use a My Number Card) and a face check, and guest limits on count and amount are not published. To buy crypto, you need a registered account, a user card that Gaia posts to your home address, and a self-custody walletA wallet where you control the private keys yourself, such as MetaMask or Trust Wallet, rather than an exchange account. address registered in advance; exchange deposit addresses are refused. In practice, visitors can cash out, residents can do both.

The costs are steep. Gaia's fee notice and its English guest disclosure set the exchange fee at 10% (including tax) for both buying and selling. Each transaction is capped at ¥100,000, and purchases take banknotes only, in ¥1,000 steps. The machines sell BTC and ETH and buy BTC, ETH and ADA. Extras: ¥550 if you take yen by bank transfer, and 0.0005 BTC, 0.005 ETH or 1 ADA if deposited crypto has to be returned to you. For a resident with an exchange app, the machine is a cash convenience, not a cheap on-ramp.

Tennoji needs care. On 18 June 2026 COINHUB announced an agreement with JR West's retail arm to install what it called western Japan's first machine at Tennoji MIO, Plaza-kan 2F. A US trade outlet reported it as installed a few days later, but we found no official update since, so we cannot say it is working today. Do not confuse it with Coinhub, the unrelated US operator at coinhubatm.com. We track the national picture in crypto ATMs in Japan.

Arriving through Kansai Airport: what visitors can and can't do

The short version: as a tourist you cannot open an account with Gaia, Zaif or any other Japanese exchange, because their identity checks require a Japanese address and, for foreigners, a residence card. That leaves three realistic routes.

First, keep using the exchange or wallet you already have at home, if it permits use while abroad. Second, use an international platform that accepts foreign-issued cards. CEX.IO is one: it holds a US FinCEN MSB registration, money-transmitter licences in many US states and a UK FCA cryptoasset registration, and it supports Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay. It is not registered with Japan's FSA, does not support yen, and Japan is on its list of unsupported countries, so it suits visitors with foreign cards, not people who live in Osaka. Third, if you arrive holding crypto and need yen, the Namba machine's sell-only guest mode may help, within its limits.

Two things to avoid. Don't arrange cash-for-crypto swaps with strangers you meet online: unregistered dealing can break Japanese law and fraud is common, as our P2P guide explains. And if you downloaded the Expo 2025 wallet during a visit, see the section below before assuming anything in it is still spendable.

Living in Osaka: opening an account and funding it

Mid- to long-term residents with a residence card can open accounts at most domestic exchanges, using phone-based eKYCElectronic Know Your Customer: you scan the IC chip of your ID card and take a selfie in the exchange app.. Since January 2026 you will also be asked to self-certify your tax residency, possibly with a foreign tax ID, under the OECD's CARF reporting rules. The step-by-step process is in How to buy Bitcoin in Japan, and visa-specific issues are covered in our guide for foreigners in Japan.

The Osaka-specific trap is banking. Kansai's regional banks are generally not on exchanges' instant-deposit lists. GMO Coin's list, for example, covers Docomo SMTB Net Bank, PayPay Bank and Japan Post Bank for direct instant deposits, but not Kansai Mirai Bank or Ikeda Senshu Bank, so customers of those banks fall back to an ordinary transfer that takes longer to arrive. If you want same-minute deposits, keep one net-bank account. Banks also now block transfers to exchanges when the sender name differs from the account holder, and Japan Post Bank warned in January 2026 that it may restrict accounts after suspicious transfers to exchanges. Send only from an account in your own name. The full deposit matrix is in ways to pay for crypto.

Osaka's two exchanges: Gaia and Zaif

Neither is the obvious first choice for a newcomer, and that is fine: you can use any registered exchange from Osaka. Zaif's appeal is its list of niche Japanese coins; note that its card payments are limited to recurring purchases with a 3.5% fee, and that a 15 October 2026 notice says identity checks are moving to My Number Card only, which matters if you don't have one. Gaia's appeal is physical cash access. Compare costs across all exchanges in our fee comparison.

What happened to the Expo 2025 digital wallet

Many visitors to Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai installed the official EXPO2025 Digital Wallet. Built on the Aptos blockchain, it bundled Myaku-Pay payments, EXPO points, collectible NFTsNon-fungible tokens: unique digital items recorded on a blockchain, used here as collectibles and certificates. called Myaku-n, and a non-transferable "Web3 Digital Passport" token. By the close it had about one million downloads and some 5.9 million cumulative transactions. Afterwards the app was handed to HashPort, a Tokyo company, and became HashPort Wallet.

• 13 Apr – 13 Oct 2025Expo runs EXPO point grants end on closing day.
• 31 Oct 2025Migration to HashPort Wallet begins
• 15 Dec 2025EXPO point exchanges close
• 13 Jan 2026Myaku-Pay and NFT deadlines Last day to spend Myaku-Pay at Visa tap merchants, and to move Myaku-n NFTs to SBI Web3 Wallet.
• AfterThe passport token stays The SBT remains in the wallet.

If you still have the app, assume expired balances are gone. HashPort Wallet itself lives on as a general wallet with links to the JPYC yen stablecoin service; see crypto wallets in Japan if you want to keep using one.

Paying with bitcoin in Osaka

Spending options are thin: BTC Map lists around five places in Osaka Prefecture against roughly 56 in Tokyo. Toy Park Mido Shop, a toy shop in Semba Center Building No. 8 (Chuo-ku), accepts Lightning and on-chain (checked April 2026). Yume wo Kanaeru Zou, a Thai mookata grill in Miyakojima, takes LightningA layer on top of bitcoin for fast, low-cost small payments, usually by scanning a QR code. (checked July 2026). Bubble Net in Shinmachi is listed but was last confirmed in January 2023, so treat it as unknown. A currency-exchange machine in Soemoncho is tagged as bitcoin-capable in map data, but we found no confirmation and left it out. Check with any venue before you go, and see where to spend crypto in Japan for the national list.

Meetups: Kansai Bitcoiners and the Kyoto connection

The steadiest community we found is Kansai Bitcoiners on Meetup.com: an Osaka-based group of about 180 members with 82 past events, including a "1st Meetup of 2026" on 2 February and an in-person blockchain meetup on 31 August. It is a private group, so venues are shown to members only. We found no large crypto conference held in Osaka itself. Kansai's industry gathering is IVS in Kyoto, held each July since 2023, with its Crypto Stage; our Kyoto guide covers it, and the national calendar is in crypto events in Japan.

Tax and regulators in Osaka

Crypto gains are generally taxed as miscellaneous income at up to 55% combined, and you file with the tax office for your home address, usually through e-Tax. Our Japan crypto tax guide walks through the rules. The regional bodies are a short walk apart in Otemae, just west of Osaka Castle:

Osaka Regional Taxation Bureau

1-5-63 Otemae, Chuo-ku (Osaka Godo Chosha No. 3), 06-6941-5331. Covers Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Nara, Shiga and Wakayama.

Kinki Local Finance Bureau

4-1-76 Otemae, Chuo-ku (Osaka Godo Chosha No. 4). Registers and supervises Zaif and Gaia.

Your tax office

Search by postcode with the National Tax Agency office finder.

For a dispute with an exchange, the FSA's consumer counselling line is 0570-016811 (Japanese).

Kobe, Nara and the rest of Kansai

The rest of Kansai has too little crypto infrastructure for pages of its own, so here it is in brief. All of it falls under the Osaka tax bureau and the Kinki finance bureau.

Kobe and Hyogo: no exchange office and no ATM. BTC Map lists one venue, Aso Cafe in Suma-ku (2-1-1 Daikokucho), which takes Lightning (checked July 2026). Kobe City has supported startups since 2016 and joined Osaka and Kyoto in a consortium that the Cabinet Office named a "global startup hub city" in 2020, but we found no Web3-specific programme. Hyogo had 155,019 foreign residents at the end of 2025. Nara: three Nara-city venues using the Blink Lightning service (Pleasure Bar, Kore Kara, Crows Dart Bar) were last checked in July 2025 and have no street address in the map data. Shiga: the guesthouse Detarameso takes Lightning (checked July 2026). For Kyoto see our Kyoto guide; for Tokyo, the Tokyo guide.

Crypto in Osaka: common questions

Keep reading

Crypto ATMs in Japan

Where the real machines are and how they work

Read more →

Crypto in Kyoto

Home of IVS Crypto, practical tips for visitors

Read more →

Crypto for foreigners in Japan

Visas, residence cards, US persons and tourists

Read more →

Crypto wallets in Japan

Choosing a wallet your exchange will actually send to

Read more →

Crypto in Tokyo

Exchange HQs, the Akihabara ATM, BTC-friendly venues

Read more →

City guides

Pick a city on the map of Japan

Read more →