Trade Cardano in Japan

This page answers one question for Japan: how a resident actually gets ADA exposure, and what the rules say.

Is Cardano trading legal in Japan?

Spot crypto and leveraged crypto derivatives are two different regimes in Japan and both are legal, but each is gated by a licence. Holding and trading spot crypto-assets is lawful; since 1 April 2017 anyone providing exchange services between crypto-assets and fiat inside Japan must be registered as a crypto-asset exchange service provider (暗号資産交換業者) under the Payment Services Act, and the FSA tells users to check that the operator they use is registered.

The FSA also states plainly that crypto-assets are not legal tender. Leveraged products — perpetuals, margin and other crypto derivatives — sit under a second regime: from 1 May 2020 crypto-asset derivative transactions fall under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, and a business carrying them on had to notify the FSA.

What the contract is

A perpetual on ADA tracks price and does not confer ownership of the underlying — the same contract mechanics apply in every jurisdiction; what differs by country is legal status and funding rails.

Sign up on Canborsa with email, X or a wallet

No document upload to open the account. Canborsa is non-custodial: your collateral stays under your own keys until a position opens.

Email X Wallet

Fund the account with USDC

Deposit USDC over Canton, Robinhood Chain, Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain or Arbitrum. Canborsa takes no fiat, so buying the USDC happens wherever you normally buy stablecoins.

→Robinhood Chain

Open ADA-PERP

Pick ADA in the markets list. The ticket shows the live price, the current funding rate and max leverage 20x .

ADA-PERPPerpetual · USDC marginLONG

Choose Buy / Long, then set size and leverage

Buying $1,000 of ADA at 5x uses $200 of collateral. Higher leverage moves the liquidation price closer to your entry: your exposure is the position size, whatever margin you posted. Set a stop-loss below your entry before you walk away.

Crypto-asset income is assessed as miscellaneous income (雑所得) under the Income Tax Act (所法35). The NTA's own worked example — compensation paid in yen in place of crypto-assets — is taxed 雑所得として課税の対象.

Trading Cardano from Japan: legal.

For Cardano traders in Japan: Platforms must conduct full identity verification before customers can trade, typically requiring Japanese government-issued ID and proof of residency.

From Japan, you can fund a Cardano position using Bank Transfer (Zengin), Credit/Debit Card and Convenience Store Payment.

On Canborsa, Cardano trading from Japan costs 0.07% per side.