Mercoin is the crypto company of Mercari, the flea-market app that many people in Japan use to buy and sell second-hand goods. Registered with the Financial Services Agency in June 2022, it started offering Bitcoin inside the Mercari app in March 2023. There is no separate exchange app: you buy, sell and track coins from the wallet ("おさいふ", osaifu) tab of the app you already have.
That design has made Mercoin one of the largest entry points to crypto in Japan. It passed 4 million cumulative accounts at the end of March 2026, close to 30% of the roughly 14.5 million domestic crypto accounts counted by the industry association, and Mercari says 85% of its crypto users had never traded before. This review draws on Mercoin's official announcements and Mercari's help centre.
Mercoin key facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operator | Mercoin, Inc., a Mercari group company |
| Licence | Crypto exchange: Kanto LFB No. 00030 (17 Jun 2022) |
| Where you trade | Inside the Mercari app, wallet tab |
| Coins | 16: Mercoin's BTC, ETH, XRP plus DOGE, SHIB, BCH, LINK, SAND, AVAX, XLM, DOT, MANA, LTC, GRT, PEPE and SOL via Coincheck |
| Minimum | ¥1 |
| Pay with | Merpay balance (including sales proceeds) or Mercari points |
| Fees | No commission; unpublished spread in the price |
| Transfers in / out | Not possible |
| Extras | Recurring buys (BTC, ETH, daily option), automatic point investing, paying for Mercari items with Bitcoin |
What works
- Buy from ¥1 using your Merpay balance or Mercari points, with no bank deposit
- Sale proceeds return to your Merpay balance for shopping or Merpay payments
- 16 coins in one app, including DOGE, SHIB, PEPE and SOL via the Coincheck link
- Point investing (from 15 September 2026) turns each batch of Mercari points into BTC or ETH automatically
- Trades are approved with passkeys (biometric log-in)
- Residence card accepted for the in-app identity check
Watch out for
- No sending crypto out to a wallet or exchange, and no receiving crypto in
- Spread is not published, and there is no order book
- No staking or lending
- Coincheck-linked coins are unavailable if you already opened a Coincheck account on your own
- Coins bought through the Coincheck link are held by Coincheck, so you also carry Coincheck-side risk
- New-style residence cards or Student and Dependent statuses may trigger extra document checks
Who is Mercoin for?
Mercoin fits people who already have money sitting in Mercari. If you regularly sell clothes, gadgets or furniture, your sales balance can go straight into Bitcoin without the detour of a bank transfer request and an exchange deposit. It also fits complete beginners who want to see how crypto prices move with a few hundred yen, inside an app they already trust. Even if you only buy on Mercari and never sell, point investing lets the points from your purchases build a small Bitcoin or Ethereum position in the background.
It doesn't fit anyone who wants to own their coins in the full sense. Because Mercoin doesn't allow transfers, you can't move Bitcoin to a hardware wallet, to an exchange abroad or to a friend. That matters for international residents in particular: if you are clearing out your apartment on Mercari before leaving Japan, converting the proceeds to Bitcoin on Mercoin won't help you take that value with you. Our guide to moving to or leaving Japan with crypto covers the options that do work.
It is also a costly way to trade larger sums, because every trade carries the spread. And if you want staking income, you'll need a regular exchange.
Think about the exit before you start. If you later decide you want your coins in your own wallet or on another exchange, the only route is to sell on Mercoin, move the yen from your Merpay balance to your bank, deposit at another exchange and buy again. You pay the spread twice, and if you sold at a profit, that sale is taxable. For anything beyond small experiments, starting on an exchange with withdrawals usually works out simpler.
Fees in practice: what the spread costs
Mercoin charges no commission. Every trade, though, is with the operator acting as a dealer (販売所, hanbaijo)The dealer desk (販売所, hanbaijo): the company sells to you at a quoted price. Easy, but the buy-sell gap is your real cost., and the price includes a spreadThe gap between the buy price and the sell price at the same moment. On dealer desks it can be several percent., the gap between what you pay to buy and what you get when you sell. Mercoin doesn't publish it, so the table below assumes 2% each way for illustration only.
| Scenario | Buy | Sell | Money in / out | Total (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ¥10,000 of sales balance into BTC and back | ≈¥200 | ≈¥200 | ¥0 inside Merpay | ≈¥400 |
| 1,000 Mercari points into BTC and back | ≈¥20 | ≈¥20 | ¥0 inside Merpay | ≈¥40 |
| For reference: order-book exchange at 0.05% taker, ¥10,000 | ≈¥5 | ≈¥5 | Depends on the exchange | ≈¥10+ |
For small amounts the cost is modest, and you avoid bank transfer fees and deposit steps. At ¥100,000 and up, the spread adds up and an order-book exchange (取引所, torihikijo)The exchange or order book (取引所, torihikijo): users trade with each other at prices they set. Lower fees, slightly more complex orders. becomes far cheaper. For Coincheck-linked coins, the price includes Coincheck's spread, which varies by coin. Compare costs across exchanges with our fee calculator.
You can measure the spread yourself before each trade: compare the buy price and the sell price shown on the order screen at the same moment. If Bitcoin shows ¥10,000,000 to buy and ¥9,800,000 to sell, the gap is ¥200,000, or about 2%. Gaps tend to widen when markets are moving fast and on less-traded coins, so if you are not in a hurry, check the prices at a calmer time. Recurring buys remove the timing question altogether.
Money in and out: everything stays inside Mercari
You pay with your Merpay balance or Mercari points; there is no bank deposit, convenience-store payment or card top-up for crypto. When you sell, the proceeds move from the crypto balance to your Merpay balance, where you can spend them on Mercari or at Merpay merchants, or request a transfer to your bank account.
The big restriction is that coins never leave or enter. Mercari's help centre states that you cannot send crypto held at another company's walletAn app or device that holds crypto and lets you send and receive it. Some are run by exchanges; with self-custody wallets you hold the keys. into Mercari, nor send crypto bought in the Mercari app to another company's wallet. Merpay's "send and receive" feature moves yen balance between users, not Bitcoin. If you want self-custody, start on an exchange that supports withdrawals; our wallet guide explains how that works under Japan's Travel RuleRules that make exchanges pass sender and recipient details along with crypto transfers. In force in Japan since June 2023..
Paying for Mercari items with Bitcoin is a taxable event
You can use Bitcoin held with Mercoin to pay for purchases on Mercari (Mercari Shops excluded). Under the National Tax Agency's FAQ, paying for goods with crypto counts as disposing of it, so any gain since you bought the coins is taxable, generally as miscellaneous income at progressive rates of up to about 55% including resident tax. Our Japan crypto tax guide walks through the calculation.
Coins, recurring buys and point investing
Mercoin itself handles BTC, ETH and XRP. From 8 June 2026 it added 12 coins through a link with Coincheck, where Mercoin acts as intermediary and Coincheck is the counterparty and custodian: DOGE, SHIB, BCH, LINK, SAND, AVAX, XLM, DOT, MANA, LTC, GRT and PEPE. SOL followed on 31 August 2026, for 16 in total, and in October Mercoin said it had begun considering Zipangcoin (ZPG).
To trade the linked coins you apply for a linked account inside the Mercari app and Coincheck screens you; you don't open a Coincheck account yourself. If you already have a Coincheck account opened independently, you can't apply. Under-18s, people aged 75 or over and non-residents are excluded, and access is being rolled out in stages. Read our Coincheck review to see what a full account there offers.
Recurring buys cover Bitcoin (since August 2024) and Ethereum (since October 2024), with a daily option since July 2025. Point investing, launched on 15 September 2026, spends every batch of Mercari points you receive on the coins you choose, BTC and ETH at launch: points are split equally, with any odd yen going to Bitcoin, so 11 points becomes ¥6 of BTC and ¥5 of ETH. There is no fee for the feature, but the spread applies. Compare with Rakuten, PayPay and Ponta in our points-to-crypto guide.
Safety and the Coincheck link
Mercoin is an FSA-registered exchange, so it must keep customer assets separate from its own and hold most crypto offline in cold wallets. Trades are approved with passkeys (FIDO), meaning your phone's biometric unlock rather than a password.
The linked coins add a second company to the picture. They are bought from and held by Coincheck, and Mercoin's own announcement lists the risks: loss or misuse of Coincheck's private keys, or Coincheck's insolvency, could cause losses. Coincheck suffered a roughly ¥58 billion NEM hack in 2018, came under Monex Group and was registered with the FSA in 2019. Social-media pitches that borrow the Mercari name are a known scam pattern; see our guide to crypto scams in Japan.
Getting started as a foreign resident
You need a Mercari account with the in-app identity check done, which is submitted from a smartphone by photographing your ID and your face. The accepted documents include the residence card, My Number Card and Japanese driving licence.
- A valid residence card with your current address. Per Mercari's help, if you submit a new-style residence card (the specified or second-generation card), or your status is Student (留学) or Dependent (家族滞在), you may be asked for extra documents proving at least six months in Japan
- Renew your identity check when your residence card is replaced: once the card expires, most Merpay features stop until you verify again
- Apply for the crypto account from the wallet tab, then the Coincheck-linked account if you want the extra coins
- Since January 2026, Japanese crypto services collect a CARF tax-residence self-certification, including a foreign tax ID if you are tax resident abroad
Mercari's help pages and the crypto account notices are in Japanese, so keep a translation tool handy for the identity check and the crypto account application, and enter your name exactly as it appears on your residence card. For visa-by-visa eligibility across services, see crypto for foreigners in Japan, and for buying on a full exchange, how to buy Bitcoin in Japan.
Alternatives to Mercoin
If you earn points elsewhere, Rakuten Wallet takes Rakuten Points and lets you send Bitcoin out, while Binance Japan takes PayPay Money and PayPay Points; see the Rakuten Wallet review and Binance Japan review. If you want withdrawals, an order book or staking, a regular exchange is the answer: SBI VC Trade charges nothing for transfers (SBI VC Trade review), and bitFlyer also sells Bitcoin from ¥1 (bitFlyer review). For the wider landscape, read crypto in Japanese apps.
Mercoin and Mercari Bitcoin: common questions
Can I buy Bitcoin on Mercari?
Yes. Mercoin, Mercari's FSA-registered crypto subsidiary, lets you buy Bitcoin and other coins inside the Mercari app from ¥1, paying with your Merpay balance (including sales proceeds) or Mercari points. Sales go back to your Merpay balance.
Can I send Bitcoin from Mercari to another wallet or exchange?
No. Mercari's official help says crypto bought in the Mercari app cannot be sent to another company's wallet, and crypto held elsewhere cannot be sent into Mercari. If you want to self-custody or move coins abroad, buy on an exchange that supports withdrawals.
Can foreigners use Mercoin?
Yes, if you live in Japan and complete Mercari's in-app identity check, which accepts the residence card. Mercari may ask for extra documents to confirm at least six months in Japan if you submit a new-style residence card or hold Student or Dependent status. The Coincheck-linked coins are not available to non-residents, under-18s or people aged 75 and over.
What does Mercoin charge?
There is no trading commission, but buy and sell prices include a spread that Mercoin does not publish. For Coincheck-linked coins, the price includes Coincheck's spread.
Which coins can I buy with Mercari?
Sixteen: Mercoin's own BTC, ETH and XRP, plus DOGE, SHIB, BCH, LINK, SAND, AVAX, XLM, DOT, MANA, LTC, GRT and PEPE through a Coincheck link added on 8 June 2026, and SOL from 31 August 2026.
Is it taxed if I pay for Mercari items with Bitcoin?
Generally yes. Japan's National Tax Agency treats paying for goods with crypto as disposing of it, so any rise in value since you bought it is taxable, usually as miscellaneous income. Keep records of each purchase and sale.
Sources
- FSA: Register of crypto-asset exchange service providers
- Mercoin: Coincheck-listed coins launch (8 June 2026)
- Mercoin: Point investing launch (15 September 2026)
- Mercoin: News
- Mercari Help: Deposits and withdrawals (Bitcoin trading service)
- Mercari Help: Identity checks with new-style residence cards
- National Tax Agency: Crypto-asset tax FAQ
Keep reading
Crypto inside Japanese apps
LINE, Rakuten, PayPay, Mercari and SBI
Read more →
Buy crypto with points
Rakuten, Ponta, PayPay and more compared
Read more →
Crypto for foreigners in Japan
Visas, residence cards, US persons and tourists
Read more →
Coincheck review
0% order-book fees, konbini deposits and NFTs
Read more →
Crypto wallets in Japan
Choosing a wallet your exchange will actually send to
Read more →
Exchange and app reviews
Japanese services tested against one checklist
Read more →