CNCK

Good afternoon. Welcome to the Coincheck Group first quarter fiscal 2027 conference call covering the quarter ended June 30th, 2026. With us today are Pascal St-Jean, Chief Executive Officer, and Jason Sandberg, Chief Financial Officer. Before Pascal and Jason begin their prepared remarks, we'd like to remind everyone that the discussion today will include several forward-looking statements, including statements about plans, goals, expectations, and aspirations of the company. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or success, and actual results may and often do differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These differences may be driven by factors discussed in the company's filings with the SEC, which may be updated from time to time. The company undertakes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements except as may be required by law.

Throughout this conference call, non-IFRS financial measures may be presented or discussed. Reconciliations of these non-IFRS financial measures to their most directly comparable IFRS financial measures appear in today's earnings press release, which is available on the company's investor relations website and on the SEC website. Finally, Coincheck Group functional currency is the Japanese yen. During today's call, for your convenience, figures may be expressed in US dollars using a translation from yen to US dollars. Please see the company's earnings release issued earlier today for detail on how the currency translation was done. I would now like to turn the call over to your first speaker, Pascal St-Jean, you may begin.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for our first quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call. Last quarter, I laid out an evolution in how we think about the company. From a holding company with a collection of independent businesses to one unified synergistic business serving both retail and institutional clients. In this quarter, I want to show you that this is no longer just a concept, but it's actually happening. The clearest way to see it is through our three-legged stool. Our platform stands on three connected legs. Crypto-as-a-Service, which embeds our rails inside trusted partners. Asset management, which seeks to convert customer balances into higher value institutional-grade revenue. Custody, the trust layer that underpins the whole thing. Three legs, one stool. Critically, all three are anchored to the same opportunity, to fully unlock the Japanese crypto market. Let me take you each in turn.

Our first leg is Crypto-as-a-Service, and this is where our momentum is most visible today. Our partnership with Mercari remains our first production Crypto-as-a-Service deployment. Millions of customers can now access digital assets, 15 supported cryptocurrencies directly inside a consumer marketplace app they already open every day. It's been running live since June. This is the model working exactly as designed. Trusted partner brings the customers, and we power the flow underneath. Our partnership with KDDI has advanced further. Following their 14.9% equity investment in Coincheck Group, we're now moving forward on mutual customer referrals across both ecosystems as contemplated in our business alliance agreement with KDDI that was signed in May at the time of the investment agreement.

KDDI is one of Japan's largest telecommunications companies, its au mobile brand serves an ecosystem of nearly 40 million users, representing one of the most significant consumer on-ramps to digital assets in the country. We recently added Credit Saison, one of Japan's most established financial institutions, with a customer base of approximately 33 million. Together, we intend to give Saison card members new ways to access crypto through points and loyalty programs, integrated payments, and jointly developed products. Because we don't compete with any of our Crypto-as-a-Service partners' core businesses, they can easily plug in without handing an advantage to a rival, and every channel we add can ultimately make us more valuable. This is Crypto-as-a-Service compounding in real time. Our second leg is asset management, where our wins have demonstrated genuine institutional leadership.

In Canada, Dynamic Funds, a Scotiabank subsidiary, selected 3iQ as sub-adviser on their dynamic, active multi-crypto ETF listed on Cboe Canada. This means that a tier 1 Canadian bank chose our institutional capability to bring crypto to their clients at scale. In Asia, 3iQ has been appointed to manage a portion of Bhutan's Bitcoin treasury. Being entrusted with a sovereign nation's reserves is a significant responsibility and one we take seriously. It is also a clear signal of our credibility 3iQ brings to the group the kind of mandate that can open doors globally. From a Canadian bank to a sovereign initiative, these are mandates that establish us as a trusted institutional manager. It's the second leg of our stool. The third leg is custody, the most important development this quarter is the clarity taking shape in Japan's regulatory and market structure around institutional custody.

We think Japan is building one of the clearest institutional custody frameworks in the world for digital assets. Custody of consumer assets already sits within a well-defined regulatory structure. With that said, the regulators are now actively working to raise the bar. Following the JFSA's April 2026 policy for strengthening cybersecurity in crypto asset exchange services, an FSA commission study published this quarter is now informing of revisions to the supervisory guidelines. It's deepening the standards for key management, audit operations, and third-party risk and aligning them with international frameworks. For institutions, this is exactly the signal they've been waiting for. Custody in Japan is becoming a more regulated, auditable, trust bank-grade discipline. This plays directly in our strengths. We've operated a licensed security-first exchange in Japan since 2019.

We are built around the segregation and key management standards these guidelines are raising, we are actively working and seeking to develop the institutional-grade custody capability that lets a Japanese trust bank or qualified institutional investor engage with digital assets with confidence. As the framework crystallizes, custody shifts from a barrier to a bridge, we intend to be on the right side of it. With Crypto-as-a-Service driving volume, asset management proving our leadership, custody clarity arriving in Japan, the platform's third leg is coming into place. Let me explain why all three legs converge on Japan, why the position we seek to establish in Japan should be difficult to replicate. Let's start with how things in Japan are today. Japan is one of the world's most important regulated crypto markets. It's also a cash-heavy economy.

Nearly half of households' financial assets, over JPY 1,100 trillion, still sit in cash and deposits. Government policy over two decades has been slowly pushing households from savings towards investments. That enormous pool of capital may only now be beginning to move. What's changing now is more regulatory clarity, and we think this is the primary catalyst. Japan is moving from a Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, the FIEA. In plain terms, this repositions crypto from a payment instrument to a financial product. It's aligned with Japan's national agenda of asset formation. Think of it as a 3-stage roadmap. Stage 1 is developing a path for traditional financial institutions to be able to participate through revised rules and guidelines. Stage 2 opens institutional product channels, spot crypto ETFs, and inclusion in investment trust and fund wrappers.

Stage 3 brings tax treatment closer to other financial assets, which will be significantly more favorable to crypto investors than the current tax rates which apply. Crucially, as lower separate tax rates make it more advantageous to trade, we would expect it to lift the trading activity and volumes across the market. The question is no longer whether Japan regulates crypto. It is what may open next and when. Here's why we think we win as those doors open. We've held the number 1 downloaded crypto app in Japan for seven consecutive years. That's not a popularity contest. It's proof that we've cleared Japan's highest barrier to entry, and we've stayed. We did so in a market where global majors entered and pulled back.

We built our base before the doors actually fully opened, so that when household money begins to move into crypto, the home is already there. On the institutional side, appetite is turning as well. In a recent Nomura-affiliated survey, roughly 79% of Japanese institutions said they plan to invest in digital assets within three years, with diversification, not speculation, as their primary driver. The potential inflow could reach a JPY trillion order. Now, connect this back to our stools. Over the next 18 months, our plan is to build and strengthen all three legs, specifically to capture this unlock we're seeing unfold. Crypto-as-a-Service, together with our organic growth, should capture the retail flow as household money moves. Asset management should capture institutional allocations as product channels open. Custody should capture the trust that lets Japan's regulated institutions participate. One large asset pool, three legs in.

That's the deliberate sequence I described last quarter. Prove the model, scale what we've proven, then expand beyond our core. Everything I've walked through today is phase 1 starting to become visible. It brings me to where we go from here. We came into this year as four businesses. We're leaving this quarter closer to being one diversified platform offering. The integration of Aplo and NFT is nearly complete, and that work has moved faster than we expected back when we set the plan in April. This means to us that we need one unifying name and brand. So we're also working this quarter on a new name and brand for our unified platform offering that is coming together, and we expect it to be revealed and rolled out later this calendar year.

To close, our three legs are all in place and all pointed at the same goal. Crypto-as-a-Service is compounding across trusted partners today. Asset management is winning institutional mandates from Canada to Bhutan. On custody, Japan's regulatory and structural framework is maturing in exactly the direction that favors a licensed security-first operator like us. Japan's regulatory arc is moving in our favor, and we've cleared the initial barrier to entry years ago. I'm confident in the strategy, excited about the opportunity ahead, and committed to delivering value to our shareholders as we build Coincheck Group into the global platform of choice for digital finance. With that, I'll turn it over to Jason, our CFO, for a review of our financial results. Thank you.

Thank you, Pascal. Let me take you through our first quarter of fiscal 2027 performance. I will start with some year-over-year comparisons. Total revenue increased 36% to JPY 114.3 billion, or $703 million USD in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, up from JPY 84 billion or $517 million USD in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Growth was primarily driven by increases in transaction revenue, specifically institutional revenue and revenue from covered counterparty transactions. Adjusted revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 increased 19% to JPY 2.92 billion or $18 million USD from JPY 2.445 million or $15 million USD in the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

The increase was driven primarily by an increase in staking revenue of JPY 176 million, or $1 million USD, and investment management fee revenue of JPY 404 million, or $2.5 million USD, both of which related to having a full quarter of the 3iQ related staking and investment management fee revenue. Our verified accounts increased 12% to 2.63 million accounts as of June 30th, 2026, up from 2.35 million accounts as of June 30th, 2025, while our customer assets decreased 37% to JPY 631.6 billion, or $3.9 billion USD as of June 30th, 2026, from JPY 1,000.3 billion, or $6.152 billion USD as of June 30th, 2025. Customer assets decreased due primarily to the decline in the market price of certain crypto assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP. Our assets under management were JPY 105.5 billion, or $649 million USD as of June 30th, 2026, compared to JPY 0 as of June 30th, 2025.

This increase reflects the AUM added to our acquisition of 3iQ, which closed effective March 1st, 2026. Our marketplace trading volume decreased 4% to JPY 59.1 billion, or $363 million USD for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, down from JPY 61.5 billion, or $378 million USD in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Please note that fluctuations in marketplace trading volume are usually driven by crypto asset industry market volumes and conditions generally, and the size and level of trading activity at Coincheck specifically, as well as market price fluctuations in the crypto assets frequently traded. Our net loss was JPY 1.18 billion, or $7.2 million USD in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, compared to a net loss of JPY 1.37 billion, or $8.5 million USD in the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

The improvement in net loss was driven primarily by a decrease in the loss from the change in fair value of the warrant liability and a net tax benefit in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 compared to a tax expense in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, partially offset by an increase in operating loss due primarily to an increase in selling general and administrative expenses. Turning now to adjusted EBITDA, we reported a loss of JPY 516 million, or $3.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of JPY 398 million, or $2.4 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. The increase in this loss related primarily to the increase in our selling general administrative expenses, partially offset by an increase in adjusted revenue. Let's now move on to our operating expenses.

Our total selling general and administrative expenses increased to JPY 4.3 billion, or $26.4 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, compared to JPY 3.6 billion, or $22 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. A majority of this increase relates to a full quarter of 3iQ's operational results versus the prior year. We ended the first quarter of fiscal 2027 with cash and cash equivalents of JPY 16.1 billion, or $98.9 million. In summary, we remain focused on executing on our three-legged stool strategy, growing Crypto-as-a-Service partnerships for the retail business, winning new asset management mandates globally, and developing solutions for Japan's evolving regulatory landscape. Together, these efforts position us well to grow platform assets and capitalize on opportunities in Japan and globally. With that, operator, please open the line for Q&A.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star and one on your keypad. To leave the queue at any time, press star two. Once again, that is star and one to ask a question, and we'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone a chance to join the queue. We'll take our first question from Ed Engel with Compass Point. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on all these recent partnerships. I guess just given a lot of these recent partnerships have kind of been more focused on the exchange business, I was wondering if there's any active discussions within the asset management business and partnerships in Japan. I guess, within any asset management partnership opportunities in Japan, would that just be related to ETFs, or could there potentially be some trust structure that you could potentially launch with a partner even before ETFs? Thanks.

Yes. Thank you, Ed, for the question. There have been some deals outside Japan signed this quarter that are not publicly announced. We've announced Bhutan as one, and there'll be a lot more announcements linked to that in terms of what that roadmap looks like. There have been some distribution channels signed in Switzerland, as well as increased distribution in Canada and Abu Dhabi. They're just private partnerships, and at this point in time have not been disclosed, but you'll start seeing results from an AUM base across those. We continue to build out distribution channels well beyond just retail in Japan on the asset management front. To answer your question specifically on Japan itself, the answer is yes, much more beyond just ETFs. As you know, 3iQ coming in is a fully diversified crypto asset manager. ETF capabilities, of course, are one.

Our hedge fund platform, our SMA platform, we've just been testing our first few vaults. We are a fully diversified asset manager with global distribution licenses and capabilities in several jurisdictions. Nothing public can be announced yet, but conversations are happening with individuals that we feel will be key distribution partners, and they will go beyond ETFs.

Great. Super helpful. Just to understand some of these B2B partnerships on the trading side, acknowledge that you're obviously it's going to be sensitive in terms of the economics for each of these, overall, are the economics in terms of your take rate on any of these B2B2C volumes? Are they closer to maybe what you're doing today, which is maybe not quite there, but like a 3%? Are they closer to what Aplo is doing, which is just maybe a couple basis points, or somewhere in the middle?

Yeah. I'll let Jason, I think, be more specific. Without disclosing exactly the terms of the deals, the end take rate, the end customer's take rate is between the joint partnerships, is closer to what we make on the retail side. The split between us and our partners are individual deals, not to be disclosed on the call. Overall, the economics of the deals for both parties is closer to what we have with retail than it is what we have with, for example, an Aplo or what you'd see with a Hashdex or someone else that's just powering underlying flow. It's closer to the retail take rate, but of course, there's a partner involved, and so there are shared economics on it.

Great. Thank you for all the color.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Alex Markgraf with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Hey, guys. I appreciate all of the new material on regulatory updates. I guess maybe just looking at the stages of development on page five of the deck that you provided, I'd be curious if you could just sort of pair these stages with your perception or interpretation of model impact. Pascal, I think you talked about trading activity sort of aligning with the tax treatment change, but maybe just speaking to the other 2 stages, if you could sort of pair that with potential model impact. Not so much in numbers, but just sort of revenue type and composition would be helpful.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Sure. Well, first of all, thank you for diving into that deck. We've put a lot of time and effort, and we will be continuing to progress on our education on what's going on in Japan to make sure people understand that it's not nothing's happening till 2028, and it's also not nothing happening right now. There's actually activity quarter-over-quarter. The first one that was recently voted was, that actually passed in the 2026 Diet just before the summer in Japan, was the official move to the FIEA sort of licensing. From a model impact, I know we had announced Mercari last year, and there were questions on whenever you're going to start seeing that partnership get activated. Last quarter, we announced KDDI.

The reality is this license or this final shift was needed for all parties, and essentially what this unlocks, the first phase of the unlock, is basically the introducing broker type of agreement where we can act as that underlying infrastructure, which what we call Crypto-as-a-Service. This is now unlocked, and so what this means is these partnerships can be established, users can be referred, APIs can be integrated, custody, KYC, trading activities, all of that. Now, of course, we could talk about volumes globally. Volumes globally are lower as we speak in the last quarter. That will, of course, impact short-term models. In terms of user growth, we're seeing positive impact from these partnerships that we wanted to see. Our job is, of course, is work with those partners to educate them on these new features, these new trading capabilities, et cetera.

That is live today, and we expect to see positive impact from that in, of course, the coming quarters because it is live. In terms of the next bigger unlock, it's the institutional unlock on the asset management side. This will not be for another year, which means that at that point in time, but you can imagine that vendor selection, partnership creations, agreement signing, all of that is being done as we speak, which is why we're spending, of course, a lot of time in Japan as the Coincheck Group management team, as well as with our local team on boots on the ground.

Nothing that can be publicly announced just yet, but there's a lot of conversations and planning for that, because to launch these products, to get operations ready to do all that in time for a year from now, when these trust structures become ready, work's happening on a weekly basis with partners that we've come together with, that will be announced. From a modeling perspective, won't get unlocked until this product launch, which is going to be towards the end of 2027, which would be earlier, but we are just positioning ourselves to be at least in line, if not ahead of what's in line. We're building ahead of the unlock, so that when the unlock happens, we're the leaders. Finally, on the tax reform, it doesn't mean that there's no trading happening today.

It just means that as the tax reform of crypto changes, we would expect that the trading culture that we see with Forex and U.S. equities and others in Japan make their way to digital assets as well, just because the tax treatment will be better. That will also lead to the opening of other products that can be pushed through our Crypto-as-a-Service channels. Without disclosing which ones, it will be much more than just spot crypto. Think of it as today as partners are live, accounts are being opened, education is being done as we speak. Next phase is preparing the institutional unlock to get ready for next summer. You'll start seeing the impact of that at the end of next year.

The ultimate unlock, which is complete regulatory reform, tax reform, and additional products that could be pushed through our retail channels beyond spot crypto.

Got it. That's helpful detail, and it's great to see the proactive approach and being ready when the time comes. Helpful. Maybe one more just on sales and marketing spend and account growth. I'm just sort of curious as maybe this applies more to the sort of retail side of things, but as we think about the sort of sequence of events here and the unlocks become. Is there a desire or any opportunity to sort of lean into account growth? Just sort of curious what the posture is there on spend. Jason, just kind of from a disclosure standpoint, remind me on some of these partnerships, Mercari, et cetera, are those captured in verified accounts or are those counted separately? Thanks.

Yeah. I can start. Those are captured in verified accounts. You'll see those in our verified account numbers in the KPIs we released. From an overall spend perspective, I'll let Pascal answer as well, but we've been pretty disciplined on the customer acquisition per account side. I think we're continuing to think through that methodically and trying to stay disciplined as well. The new distribution partners we're targeting is allowing us to be pretty efficient economically as well.

Yeah. At a high level, if we think about the access of crypto in Japan is still primarily linked to crypto exchanger sites, what we're seeing in North America, with Robinhood entering crypto aggressively, even testing out different tokenized sort of assets and launching their L2, and then on the flip side, Coinbase calling themselves now the everything exchange. They're trying to bridge the gap to provide more services to their users. Japan as a whole is still, call it, in the old model where if you're going to get your equities, you're going to go open a brokerage account, and if you want your crypto, you'd open an exchange account. Those worlds will collide over time as these new regulations come into place. For us right now, our marketing on the Coincheck, Inc.

retail app is more focused for the, call it, the OG retail experience for crypto. We continue to see organic growth. Our digital marketing team has been consistently excellent at driving growth, organic growth, through digital marketing forms. The brand is very strong, and we plan to continue to invest responsibly to grow that user base because it is a different user base than what we're seeing with our distribution partners. A user that's coming from Mercari or KDDI or Credit Saison is a different user than what we are doing organically. We're making sure that no one's stepping on each other's toes. Yes, we will continue to invest in that because we want to cater to those diverse user groups. What products and services get offered to each of those channels will be based on our user segmentation and user surveys.

In terms of what we are building to offer those users, it is a unified platform of additional trading tools and capabilities, as well as asset management products and services over time that will be enabled as regulation continues to evolve. Today that's not possible, but we've already invested the time, the tech, and the resources to get ready for that. Just think about different channels not stepping on each other's toes and then pushing proper products in those channels to meet those users' needs. Yes, Coincheck, Inc. continues to grow organically. Hopefully, that answers your question.

Yeah. Okay, great. I appreciate the thoughtful responses. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, it is the star and one on your touch-tone telephone. Our next question comes from Devin Ryan with Citizens JMP. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. It's Neil on for Devin. Similar to Alex, I found some of the new regulatory roadmap materials very useful. One data point I found particularly interesting was that Japanese households still hold roughly 48.5% of their financial assets in cash. Historically, that allocation has remained pretty stable and has only come down incrementally over the past 2 decades, and more recently, we've obviously seen some great adoption in equities. As you think about the evolution, what kind of gives you confidence that crypto can become a meaningful beneficiary of that next wave of asset allocation, and what do you see as kind of the key catalyst that ultimately moves crypto into the mainstream investment for Japanese households?

Absolutely. From that perspective, that slide is bang on. It is the opportunity at hand compared to other jurisdictions outside of crypto, and what you've seen as policymakers and government, as you've seen from the deck, are purposefully creating new rules and regulations and education and encouragement. One of their big successful accounts was the NISA account, which is an investment savings account very similar to your Roth IRA or your TFSA in Canada. That's seen a lot of success and has created to a lot more of the younger generation opening accounts. Again, to be clear, from our perspective, think of us as a unified digital platform. Today, our primary offering is crypto spot volume. You will hear more in terms of what's coming into the pipeline in the coming quarters. We will be offering much more than just that.

For us, as our brand, as the younger generation are looking for a digital-first native experience and digital-first native products. Now, whether that's spot crypto, whether that's tokenized products, whether that is on-chain derivatives or access to DeFi, these are things that are not currently available based on current regulation, but the roadmap points to that direction. We are hoping to leapfrog legacy technology to new on-rail technology to capture that change in behavior. As basically the policies continue to be pushed by the regulators and government to encourage more investment, as the younger population get more educated and comfortable with direct investing and crypto as a whole in a digital-first experience, we feel that we're super well-positioned, not only because of the app we have, but also the channels that we have to give that experience to the emerging users in Japan.

This is not a one-quarter solution, but it is a longer-term tailwind that as that shifts over time, we want to be right there to capture that. In terms of how long or how fast, that's the trillion-dollar question or the JPY 1 trillion question, to your point. We're confident and have been seeing movements because of policy change and a push by government to move from cash to investing.

Awesome. Thanks for the color. Maybe one more question just on the Credit Saison partnership. Obviously, this gives you access to one of Japan's largest consumer financial ecosystems, with roughly 33 million members. As you think about executing on the opportunity, should we view the rollout as occurring in waves, with certain products or use cases launching first? Is there any timeline you can share around how investors should think about the rollout over the next few quarters?

Yes. Thank you. One thing again that may not be clear in the depth that we want to continue educating is, we're all comfortable globally with credit card points or loyalty points in general. In Japan, it is on another scale. What can be done is those points can be utilized for more than just redeeming for an airplane ticket or redeeming for a gift card. You can do much more. Companies are competing to not only offer more points to their users for loyalty, but also better experiences of what you can do with those points. What we've actually done with Credit Saison and what we're doing with other partners is the rollout of using your points to be able to invest.

It's not just about getting crypto rewards, it's actually being able to use your loyalty points to invest and trade in crypto. We power the flow in the back end. There are two legs into our Crypto-as-a-Service sort of offerings. One is, of course, the cash inflow. A user will fund their accounts in cash and trade for crypto. The other side is the points avenue, and that's what the first unlock with Credit Saison has been, is through the points. Mercari has been through cash trading. They're all coming in from a different vector. Over time, the desire of these partnerships is to grow what we can do with them. Everyone has to start with one first product. Yes, Credit Saison was on the points trading capability.

Okay. Thanks for taking the question, guys.

Thank you. At this time, we have no further questions in queue. We'd like to thank everybody for joining today's conference call. This does conclude the call, and we appreciate your participation, and you may now disconnect.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Coincheck Group Fiscal Year 2026 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call covering the quarter ended March 31st, 2026. With us today are Pascal St-Jean, Chief Executive Officer, and Jason Sandberg, Chief Financial Officer. Before Pascal and Jason begin their prepared remarks, we'd like to remind everyone that the discussion today will include several forward-looking statements, including statements about plans, goals, expectations, and aspirations of the company. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or success, and actual results may and often do differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These differences may be driven by factors discussed in the company's filings with the SEC, which may be updated from time to time. The company undertakes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements except as may be required by law.

Throughout this conference call, non-IFRS financial measures may be presented or discussed. Reconciliations of these non-IFRS financial measures to their most directly comparable IFRS financial measures appear in today's earnings press release, which is available on the company's investor relations website and on the SEC website. Finally, Coincheck Group's functional currency is the Japanese yen. During today's call, for your convenience, figures may be expressed in U.S. dollars using a translation from yen to U.S. dollars. Please see the company's earnings release issued earlier today for detail on how the currency translation was done. I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker, Pascal St-Jean. You may begin.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our fiscal fourth quarter and year-end 2026 earnings call. This Q1 fiscal 2027 is my first quarter as CEO of Coincheck Group, and I'm truly excited about the opportunity to lead our company into its next stage of growth as we work to become one of the leading global crypto financial services company. Today, I wanna share an important evolution in our strategy. Our current thinking is to no longer view ourselves as a holding company with a collection of independent businesses, but rather to build one unified synergistic platform of products and solutions that serve both retail and institutional clients. We plan to build this platform on three connected initiatives. First, Japan Retail, the anchor of trust, liquidity, users, and brand. Second, the institutional platform, the bridge to higher quality revenue, broader capability, and strategic relevance.

Third, on-chain innovation, the edge that extends future growth and long-term upside. Our strategic focus is clear. We will build comprehensive capabilities across custody, asset management, staking, trading, and execution, serving retail customers and institutional clients with the same level of excellence. The reason we're leaning into this now is that the question institutions are asking has fundamentally shifted. The boundaries between traditional financial services and digital assets are converging, and institutions of consequence are no longer asking if they should engage with digital assets. They're asking who they can trust to engage with at scale. The deliberate disciplined work we've been doing across regulation, infrastructure, and institutional capability is what makes Coincheck Group an answer to that question. You might ask, why is now the right time for this strategic shift? The answer is straightforward. Japan is entering a more constructive phase for digital assets.

We're seeing meaningful progress on several fronts in Japan, potential tax reform, accelerated product development, and growing institutional participation in the market. This convergence of regulatory progress and market maturation creates a significant opportunity, and we believe Coincheck Group is uniquely positioned to capitalize on it. Let me explain why. First, we have a defensible consumer leadership in Japan. This matters because Japan is highly regulated, trust sensitive, and operationally demanding market. We've maintained our position as the number one downloaded crypto app in Japan for seven consecutive years. Our local relevance and strategic position is not easily replicated. Second, we've been deliberately building institutional capabilities through our strategic acquisition of 3iQ. 3iQ provides immediate institutional credibility, deep solution capabilities, and a meaningful AUM base. 3iQ's clients range from established Canadian banks to an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund, the kind of institutional validation that opens doors globally.

We're not just talking about strategy, we're executing on it. Two recent partnerships make this point very clear. In March, Dynamic Funds, a Scotiabank subsidiary, selected 3iQ as sub-advisor on their new Dynamic Multi-Crypto ETF listed on Cboe Canada. It's a tier one Canadian bank. They chose Coincheck Group's institutional capability to bring crypto exposure to their clients at scale. Today, we announce our strategic partnership with KDDI Corporation, one of Japan's largest telecommunications companies. KDDI is taking a 14.9% equity investment in Coincheck Group, and our Japanese subsidiary, Coincheck, Inc., has entered into a business alliance with KDDI that includes mutual customer referrals across both companies' ecosystems. Most of all, we're excited about what this partnership means for people in Japan. Millions of consumers gaining easier, more trusted access to digital assets through an institution they already know and rely on every day.

These two partnerships are not isolated wins. They're a signal. Institutions are no longer asking if they should enter digital assets. They're asking who they should enter it with. Two months, two institutions, two markets, one platform of choice, Coincheck Group. Our land and expand strategy is also gaining traction more broadly. Our pipeline is growing as it reflects the same logic that drew KDDI and Scotiabank to us. Institutions want to partner with regulatory standing, infrastructure, and proven institutional capability, and that is a platform we're building. Let's dive a little deeper into our strategic roadmap. Japan is one of the world's most important regulated crypto markets.

If we can demonstrate success here by deepening our retail leadership, building institutional relevance, and monetizing our platform through higher value products like staking, lending, custody, and over time, derivatives, we believe we can replicate this model in other markets around the world. Success in Japan proves our model works in a demanding, regulated environment. That proof becomes our competitive advantage as we look to expand globally. The fact that institutions like KDDI are choosing to enter digital assets through Coincheck Group is the strongest confirmation that the institutional bridge we're seeking to build is actually real. Now, let me be clear about our approach. This strategy is not built in one leap. It's built on a deliberate sequence. Let me talk about our three phases. In phase one, we've got to prove the model works.

That means demonstrating tangible integration progress across our acquired businesses, showing real institutional traction in the market, deepening our platform capabilities in Japan, and making our recurring and non-trading revenue streams more visible to investors. In phase two, we scale what we already proven. The plan is to cross-sell across the platform, improve our revenue mix and operating leverage, and significantly increase the contribution from institutional and platform-style revenues. In phase three, we expand beyond our core. We will seek to extend this proven model into new markets, deepen monetization and product breadth, and broaden the group's strategic and valuation relevance on a global stage. As we close fiscal 2026 and look to the year ahead, let me leave you with a few key takeaways. One, our leadership position in Japan is real and defensible.

Seven consecutive years as the number one crypto app downloaded in Japan is not luck. It's the result of operational excellence and deep customer trust. Two, our institutional strategy is deliberate, commercially meaningful, and has begun to be visibly proven. KDDI in Japan, Dynamic Funds and Scotiabank in Canada, and the pipeline behind both institutions are no longer asking whether to engage with digital assets. They're asking who they can trust to do it with, and they're choosing Coincheck Group. Three, our revenue quality should improve over time as we shift towards institutional and platform-style revenues while maintaining and growing our retail strength in Japan. I'm confident in our strategy. I'm excited about the opportunity ahead, and I'm committed to delivering value to our shareholders as we build Coincheck Group into the global platform of choice for digital finance.

With that, I'll turn it over to our CFO, Jason Sandberg, for highlights of our financial results. Thank you.

Thank you, Pascal. Let me take you through our fourth quarter fiscal 2026 performance. I will start with some year-over-year comparisons. Total revenue increased 4% to JPY 119.7 billion, or $752 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, up from JPY 114.6 billion or $720 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. For the fiscal 2026 full year, total revenue increased 25% to JPY 480.2 billion or $3 billion from JPY 383.3 billion or $2.4 billion in the fiscal 2025 full year. Growth was primarily driven by increases in transaction revenue, specifically institutional and revenue from cover counterparty transactions.

Adjusted revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 decreased 18% to JPY 2.9 billion or $18 million from JPY 3.5 billion or $22 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. The decrease was driven primarily by a decline in marketplace trading volume, partially offset by an increase in staking revenue of JPY 622 million or $3.9 million and investment management fee revenue of JPY 140 million or $900,000. We introduced adjusted revenue this quarter to provide a clearer view of our core transactional and fee-based business.

For the fiscal 2026 full year, adjusted revenue decreased 8% to JPY 13.1 billion, or $82 million, from JPY 14.2 billion, or $89 million in the fiscal 2025 full year, driven primarily by a decline in marketplace trading volume, partially offset by an increase in staking revenue and investment management fee revenue. Our verified accounts increased 10% to 2.5 million accounts as of March 31st, 2026, up from 2.3 million accounts as of March 31st, 2025. Even though the quality of digital tokens held by customers remained relatively stable during the fiscal 2026 full year, customer assets decreased. Primarily due to the decline in the market price of crypto assets, including Bitcoin and XRP.

Our assets under management were JPY 128.8 billion, or $810 million as of March 31st, 2026, due to the acquisition of 3iQ. Our marketplace trading volume decreased 29% to JPY 65.7 billion, or $413 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, down from JPY 92 billion or $578 million compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, and decreased 8% to JPY 309.6 billion, or $1.9 billion in the fiscal 2026 full year from JPY 337.5 billion, or $2.1 billion in the fiscal 2025 full year.

Please note that fluctuations in marketplace trading volume are usually driven by crypto asset industry market volumes and conditions generally, and the size and level of trading activity at Coincheck specifically, as well as market price fluctuations in the crypto assets that are frequently traded. Our net loss was JPY 1.2 billion, or $7.6 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, compared to a net profit of JPY 642 million or $4 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025.

The swing to a net loss was driven partially by a fourth quarter fiscal 2026 decline in marketplace trading volumes and an increase in selling general and administrative expenses, consisting mainly of, one, employee severance expenses of JPY 334 million, or $2.1 million, related primarily to the March 31st, 2026 departure of the company's former CEO. Two, professional fees of JPY 261 million, or $1.6 million, related to a potential transaction with which the company decided not to move forward. Three, capitalized software impairment costs of JPY 197 million, or $1.2 million, relating to a particular software development project.

For the fiscal 2026 full year, net loss was JPY 1.8 billion or $11.5 million as compared to a net loss of JPY 14.35 billion or $90.2 million in the fiscal 2025 full year. Note the significant net loss in fiscal 2025 was primarily due to the transaction costs related to the public transaction. Turning now to adjusted EBITDA. We reported a loss of JPY 863 million, or $5.4 million in the fourth quarter fiscal 2026, compared to adjusted EBITDA income of JPY 719 million, or $4.5 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025.

The fiscal 2026 full year adjusted EBITDA decreased 61% to JPY 1.7 billion, or $10.5 million from JPY 4.3 billion or $26.9 million in the fiscal 2025 full year. These declines were related mainly to lower adjusted revenue, driven mostly by declines in marketplace trading volume and increased selling, general and administrative expenses, consisting mainly of the certain specific fourth quarter 2026 expenses. Now let's move on to our operating expenses. Our total selling, general, and administrative expenses increased to JPY 4.3 billion, or $27 million in the fiscal 2026 fourth quarter, compared to JPY 3.6 billion or $22.4 million in the fiscal 2025 fourth quarter due to several expenses, higher professional fees, and capitalized software impairment costs discussed earlier.

We ended the fiscal 2026 fourth quarter with cash and cash equivalents of JPY 9.5 billion, or $59.5 million. In summary, the fourth quarter reflects a difficult market environment, but the strategic building blocks are in place. Growing accounts, institutional traction with KDDI and Scotiabank, and a full year of positive adjusted EBITDA. We look forward to updating you on our progress. With that, operator, please open the line for Q&A.

We'll move first to Ed Engel with Compass Point.

Hi. Thanks for taking the question and congrats, Pascal, for finishing your first full quarter as CEO. Just wanted to touch on Coincheck, I guess the tax reform over in Japan. Just kind of curious of where that legislation is kind of tracking here and whether there's still a chance it could happen in 2026. Thanks.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the comment. So far we operate on the original timeline that is proposed by the regulators in Japan and the politicians in general, which is basically the FIEA rule. The basically, you know, exchange and investment act that's coming in for crypto in 2027. After that, tax reform starting in 2028, primarily for crypto and crypto ETFs. You know, that may compress over time if progress gets made, but so far these are the guidelines we've been provided, and we operate towards that. In terms of our efforts in Japan, we see partnerships, you know, distribution and essentially the land grab happening this year. That's our focus. I think the deal with KDDI is just one example.

Of course we're working on other things, this is the year where the land grab is in place in preparation for the regulatory change that's coming in the coming year.

Great, thanks. Would that include, I guess, crypto ETFs in Japan, or could that still happen independently? I guess how are you guys gonna position yourselves, I guess for that opportunity?

Yeah. They're both together on the tax reform side. In terms of the crypto regulation that's coming in this year, it's all the beginning of the positioning. In other words, the regulatory requirements, the, you know, the regulatory capital, et cetera. Right now, there's a lot of planning going ahead in Japan across the entire industry on the custody model, liquidity model, governance model for these ETFs. I could tell you I've been spending 60 of the past 120 days in Japan, not because we have a lot of work internally, it's because there's a lot of demand for discussions with, as you can imagine, a lot of the large institutions, as well as with regulators, and we are at the forefront of those discussions as a group.

Our plan, as described in our press release as well as in our online presentation, is to tackle both the retail and the institutional market, which means the change in regulation coming for the exchanges and the changes coming, with the opening of the ETFs. We are planning for both.

Great. One, just last one on housekeeping. Did you provide the average spread on the exchange for the fourth quarter?

Yeah. We didn't have it in the earnings release. It was relatively consistent, quarter-over-quarter. We're still, you know, between 3.2% and 3.3%, for the quarter ended.

Great. Thank you.

We'll move next to Brett Knoblauch with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. I guess maybe to start on, you know, you wanna build a platform, I think, in the prepared remarks for the three initiatives. First question, you know, you guys have been kind of active, I feel like, kind of acquiring, you know, different businesses over the last year, kind of to build this platform. When would you expect maybe everything to come together and we would start seeing it in the financials? I know it's somewhat dependent on, you know, kind of the crypto markets and how those are trending. Just curious on the timing for kind of everything coming together. Then the third point was on kind of on-chain innovation. Could you maybe elaborate there? Like, what are you looking to do in terms of on-chain? Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely. In terms of the platform, I think you're starting to see the results in the reported number as we add what we call engines like 3iQ, so we're diversifying revenue streams. In terms of some of the other companies we acquired, we acquired great companies that have technology and great individuals, and those integrations have already begun, whether it's utilizing Aplo's technology over at 3iQ on the hedge fund side or NFT staking capabilities for both engines. We see those as internal optimizers to increase margins as well as to deliver better services to clients.

As we start, you know, gaining distribution deals like those that were announced to, you know, today, Scotiabank and KDDI and others in the future, you know, depending on what the customer needs, we are well-versed to be able to service those demands regardless of what they're looking for. Whether it is trade execution, whether it's staking in the future or asset management services, we could deliver all that. When we talk about a platform, want to be very clear, it's a financial platform, it's not a technology platform, but it's essentially delivering those services in a united way to our partners and potential distributors in different regions. In terms of it all coming together, it's happening in the background. We're starting to see optimization take place.

In terms of that being seen in the numbers, I believe Jason reported, you know, some benefit of adding some of these companies when we were looking at, essentially how staking revenue and how asset management revenue has diversified the revenue mix. I could pass it to Jason to talk about that, but right before that, maybe I can answer your second question, which is on-chain innovation. I think what you see There are two things. There's tangible things right now, and then there's things we're trying to make sure we stay ahead of. In the press release with our partnership with KDDI, there are two angles to this.

The first one is a distribution of our current capabilities. The second is a joint venture company that was created where we will be working together to create on-chain capabilities, you know, primarily through web3 wallets for the Japanese consumers. You can imagine what could be built on top of that. I'm not gonna forecast exactly what they are because we are developing them. Imagine, you know, a self-hosted, you know, retail wallet, you know, that can be distributed to the masses with the various types of products that can be developed on top of that. That's one example of making sure we stay, you know, on track of what your future retail and where future institutional demand would come from.

The second is, you know, with our brand presence and our credibility and our size in Japan, you can imagine there's a lot of projects, foundations, as looking to come into Japan, as well as we are also very well connected globally with a lot of projects. You're seeing, you know, as you can see, trading volume derivatives on Hyperliquid, you're seeing a lot of things happening on-chain, you're seeing a lot of vault activity. All of these things when we talk about on-chain, it's that next generation edge, and we see ourselves being very well positioned to bring, you know, various types of partnerships into Japan, as well as to leverage our engineering capabilities to make sure that we stay ahead of the curve to deliver those services, there as well, and of course, into the future in different markets.

As you start hearing us report on on-chain innovation, it has to do with those kind of opportunities, including potential tokenization. I know it's a lot, but these are tangible things we're working on in the background and that we're looking forward to announcing some future partnerships as they develop. I'll turn it to Jason to maybe talk about sort of the impact on revenue mix that we're already seeing.

Sure. I mean, if you look through the press release that went out this morning, you can see just year-over-year and even quarter-over-quarter, a more diversified mix within revenue as we've added staking revenue year-over-year. Additional staking revenue through the acquisition of 3iQ. Then, of course, you know, one month of 3iQ, we also have investment management fee revenue coming from that merger as well.

Perfect. Thank you, guys. Really looking forward to it.

Thank you.

Once more, that is star one for your questions. We'll move next to Alex Markgraff with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Thanks. Hey, guys. Appreciate you taking my questions. I wanted to maybe follow up on the KDDI partnership a little bit, just understand the scope of opportunity here more. Pascal, I know you just sort of commented on that, but the structure of it, I think, a bit unique as far as partnerships go with the ownership stake. Maybe just speak to the uniqueness of this opportunity. Jason, if there's any way to for us to think about the sort of economic structure of this between revenue sharing referrals and such, that'd be helpful. Thanks. I have a follow back to that.

Absolutely. A big part of our, of our growth strategy, whether it is for retail in Japan or institutional, generally speaking, I think is very clear in these two partnerships that were announced. I think we see our capabilities as being very diversified for partnerships. Doesn't mean that we don't wanna continue growing, of course, our user base on the retail side. Our brand and our capabilities and our institutional capabilities drive very well for distribution. You know, phase one, as described with KDDI, is literally the beginnings of a cross-marketing opportunity. They are looking to get more and more into financial services, and they see crypto as being a prime source of those of what they wanna deliver to their clients.

They chose Coincheck Group as sort of that prime partner. Phase one, it's really a business alliance where they will be referring customers to us, and I'll let Jason talk about what we can or can't share on the partnership revenue mix. It's a distribution deal, you know, that's powered by Coincheck Group's, you know, existing platform. You know, the phase two of that, which is more of the business alliance JV. We wanna make sure that we people understand the difference between the two. Phase one starts immediately. Phase two is more around developing new progressive technologies together that could service their growing user base.

In terms of total user count, you know, they are one of the largest telcos in Japan, and so we are sitting on, you know, millions of potential prospects. I can't say how many we're targeting on day one, but essentially, they see finance as a key part of their growth as a whole company. We're very proud of this partnership. Of course, we'll be sharing more details as development and of that integration takes place in the coming quarters.

Yeah. Alex, appreciate the question. Of course, as you might imagine, we haven't put out publicly, you know, the economics of the relationship and certainly haven't launched yet. Really, unable to share too much. Of course, as Pascal mentioned, we're pretty optimistic on the potential magnitude and number of users that exist at KDDI and what that offers up to us from Coincheck Group perspective.

I know you had a question around the strategic allocation. As you can imagine, the conversations we're having within institutions, globally, you know, you've seen this in with other companies where, as you partner and as you know, this, the large distributor, you know, is gonna power and impact, you know, the company that's providing the services. This is often very standard, where essentially, you know, the distributor wants to play on both sides. We're very happy to add strategic, you know, institutional partners to the cap table when and where it makes sense. This one in the discussions made total sense for their presence and their vision that KDDI has in Japan, very much aligned with where we're going as a company.

We were very happy to have those discussions and very proud of today's announcement.

Got it. That's helpful. Thank you. Maybe just a follow-up, stepping back. Same topic, just sort of around customer growth or account growth. I guess, maybe just any perspective on how we should be thinking about account growth from here. Obviously a bit more challenging of a backdrop across the ecosystem, but you do have, you know, partnerships coming online, not just KDDI, but I think Mercoin as well. Just, I don't know, any thoughts as to how we should be thinking about the trajectory of account growth from here, given the backdrop and scaling of partnerships would be helpful. Thanks. Just kind of relative to 2026.

I can't provide specific numbers. You can imagine these partnerships are new in the industry at large. You know, our strategic perspective is, again, I know I'm repeating the answer several times, but I think it's very important to drive the point, is that we're not letting go of our marketing efforts. I think we're, you know, again, we're number one downloaded crypto app for a reason. As the industry continues to expand and more and more institutions are looking to enter the space, they're looking for partners. We're calling this Crypto as a Service. That's one of multiple things. It's essentially providing our platform to others. We are very highly focused on these types of, call it partner referral and distribution deals.

You know, Mercoin was announced last year, KDDI. There are others in the works, not just for retail trading, but for some of the other services that we have on our platform as well, which includes asset management, staking and execution. This is our main focus right now from a BD perspective, is lining up these types of partnerships, because they do have, you know, it's a, it's a one-to-one B2B relationship that leads to, you know, a high volume of potential B2B2C opportunities. We see, again, leveraging the brand and the trust that we have in Japan to execute those.

Understood. Thank you, Pascal. Appreciate it.

I show no further questions at this time. Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Coincheck Group N.V. fiscal year 2026 Q3 Earnings Conference Call, covering the period from October 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025. With us today are Gary Simanson, Chief Executive Officer of Coincheck Group, and Jason Sandberg, Chief Financial Officer of Coincheck Group, Pascal St-Jean, Incoming Chief Executive Officer of Coincheck Group, and Oki Matsumoto, Executive Chairperson. Before we begin our prepared remarks, I'd like to remind everyone that our discussion today will include forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. These factors are discussed in more detail in our filings with the SEC, including our filings related to the Q3 of fiscal 2026.

Such factors may be updated from time to time in our periodic filings with the SEC, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. Additionally, throughout this conference call, we will also present and discuss non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliations of our non-IFRS financial measures to their most directly comparable IFRS financial measures appear in today's earnings press release, which are available on our investor relations website and on the SEC website. Our functional currency is the Japanese yen. During today's call, we'll be referring to certain rounded figures and certain figures that we've translated from yen to US dollars solely for the convenience of the reader into the US dollar.

For more details on these figures and the convenient foreign currency translation we have used, please see our earnings release that was issued earlier today and furnished on Form 6-K, as well as our fiscal 2026 Q3 financial statements and MD&A, which we will furnish with the SEC on Form 6-K. I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker for today, Gary Simanson. You may begin.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our fiscal 2026 Q3 earnings call. I would especially like to welcome Oki Matsumoto, our Executive Chairman, and Pascal St-Jean, Chief Executive Officer of 3iQ, as well as Chief Growth Officer of Coincheck Group N.V., who will both be speaking later on this call. While global financial markets continue to experience outsized volatility and portfolio rebalancing and adjustments with a further flight to liquidity and de-risking, which has reverberated throughout the crypto industry, we have continued to stay focused and disciplined in our seasoned approach. I would like to reiterate that we do not hold crypto assets on our balance sheet other than to facilitate customer trading, and we seek to take very limited risk as to the value of any particular crypto asset trading through our platforms.

While the financial results for our fiscal 2026 Q3, including trading volumes, assets under management, and margin, were negatively impacted by declines in crypto asset prices experienced globally in our fiscal 2026 Q3 as compared to our fiscal 2026 Q2, our underlying business is stable and continues to show significant progress as we continue to execute building out our global platform. Coincheck, Inc. continues to be the No. 1 downloaded crypto app in Japan. Our verified user accounts increased to 2.5 million for our fiscal 2026 Q3, up from 2.4 million in our fiscal 2026 Q2. I am pleased to report that we had another solid quarter of core profitability.

We had net income of $2.6 million for the fiscal 2026 Q3, compared to net income of $2.3 million for the fiscal 2026 Q2. Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal 2026 Q3 was $9.1 million, versus $9.5 million for the fiscal 2026 Q2. Total revenue for the fiscal 2026 Q3 was $915 million, compared to $849 million for the fiscal 2026 Q2. Our efforts to enhance and diversify our revenue channels continue to show promise.

Given the recent softening in global crypto market conditions, this promise is underscored by the relatively modest decline in our Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal 2026 Q3 as compared to our fiscal 2026 Q2, as well as by the increased mix of revenue in our fiscal 2026 Q3 between retail trading, staking, successful launch of an IEO, and institutional business generated from the successful closing of the Aplo Prime Brokerage acquisition. We continue to be nimble in managing our customer acquisition expense and remain vigilant in maintaining strong expense control. I would like to now turn it over to Jason to dig deeper into the numbers.

Thank you, Gary. Let me take you through our Q3 fiscal 2026 performance. Let's start with some year-over-year comparisons. Total revenue increased 17% to JPY 143.5 billion, or $915 million, in the Q3 of fiscal 2026, up from JPY 123.1 billion, or $785 million, in the Q3 of fiscal 2025. This was partially a result of additional gross revenue generated from Aplo for the quarter. Gross margin, which means our total revenue less our cost of sales, decreased 20% to JPY 3.8 billion, or $24 million, in the Q3 of fiscal 2026, down from JPY 4.8 billion, or $31 million, in the Q3 of fiscal 2025.

Mostly as a result of an overall decrease in our marketplace trading volume, partially offset by $2 million of revenue from a successful initial exchange offering, or IEO. Our verified accounts increased 13% to 2.5 million accounts as of December 31, 2025, up from 2.2 million accounts as of December 31, 2024. However, this was due mostly to the substantial market price decline in crypto assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP during the December 2025 quarter. Even though our digital tokens under custody remained relatively stable, our customer assets decreased 17% to JPY 948.5 billion, or $6.04 billion, as of December 31, 2025, down from JPY 1,142.2 billion, or $7.28 billion, as of December 31, 2024.

Our marketplace trading volume decreased 25% to JPY 87.7 billion, or $559 million, for the Q3 of fiscal 2026, down from JPY 117.4 billion, or $749 million, compared to the Q3 of fiscal 2025. Please note that fluctuations in marketplace trading volume are usually driven by crypto asset industry market volumes and conditions generally, and the size and level of trading activity at Coincheck, Inc. specifically, as well as market price fluctuations in the crypto assets frequently traded. Our net income increased to JPY 405 million, or $2.6 million, in the Q3 of fiscal 2026, compared to a net loss of JPY 15 billion, or $98.5 million, in the Q3 of fiscal 2025.

A large component of the net loss results for the Q3 of fiscal 2025 was total transaction costs, including listing expense of JPY 17,518 million, or $111.7 million. These were the costs associated with becoming a public company in December 2024. Our Adjusted EBITDA removed these transaction costs and listing expenses. Turning now to Adjusted EBITDA, it decreased by 38% to JPY 1,428 million, or $9.1 million, in the Q3 of fiscal 2026, compared to JPY 2,303 million, or $14.7 million, in the Q3 of fiscal 2025.

Mainly as a result of the reduction in marketplace trading volume year-over-year, partially offset by revenue of $2 million from the initial exchange offering we hosted in the fiscal 2026 Q3. Our staking revenue for the fiscal 2026 Q3 was 777 million JPY, or $5 million, compared to 794 million JPY, or $5.1 million, in the Q2 of fiscal 2026. There is no year-over-year comparison for staking revenue, as that service did not really get going until the 2026 fiscal year. Let's now move on to operating expenses.

Our total selling, general, and administrative expenses decreased to JPY 3.5 billion, or $22.4 million, in the fiscal 2026 Q3, compared to JPY 6.4 billion, or $41 million, in the fiscal 2025 Q3. This was mainly due, however, to our transaction costs associated with becoming a public company in December 2024. However, please also note that an increase in our quarterly share-based compensation expense of $2 million, as well as transaction costs associated with the acquisitions of Aplo SAS and 3iQ Corp, were part of the fiscal 2026 Q3 selling, general, and administrative expenses, while there were no share-based compensation or similar acquisition expenses in the fiscal 2025 Q3.

We ended the fiscal 2026 Q3 with cash and cash equivalents of JPY 10.6 billion, or $67.9 million. In summary, we are pleased with our results in these challenging market conditions, specifically our continued increase in verified accounts and solid marketplace trading volume, which resulted in another quarter of strong Adjusted EBITDA. I would now like to hand it back to Gary.

Thank you, Jason. On our prior fiscal 2026 Q2's earnings call, I spoke of our continued efforts to explore and evaluate additional potential acquisition opportunities consistent with our stated growth plans. We are extremely pleased to have announced on January 8, 2026, the pending acquisition of 3iQ Corp, one of the world's leading alternative digital asset managers. 3iQ is based in Ontario, Canada, and has a global reach. We are targeting closing the pending acquisition prior to our March 31, 2026, fiscal year end or early in our fiscal 2027 Q1. In addition to further diversifying our revenue stream into the global crypto institutional market, 3iQ brings us a well-known, regulated, highly regarded, profitable business.... 3iQ also brings us a deep bench of global crypto talent and experience that offers us the opportunity for meaningful cross-platform synergies and enhanced long-term growth.

It is a great fit and a natural addition to Coincheck Group N.V. The acquisition rounds out the initial phase of building a diversified global crypto financial services holding company, serving both retail and institutional markets. Its CEO, Pascal St-Jean, is a proven leader and well-seasoned in the crypto space. He has also served in recent months as Chief Growth Officer of Coincheck Group N.V. As was announced earlier today, I will be resigning as Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Coincheck Group N.V., effective March 31st, 2026. I have gotten to know Pascal since Coincheck Group's general annual shareholders meeting in September 2025. It is a pleasure to work with him, and he has quickly established strong support among the broader team. He is the right person at the right time to take over the reins of Coincheck Group N.V., effective April 1, 2026.

He is well-positioned for success and has my full support. I also spoke on our prior earnings call of the need to create broader and enhanced float in our publicly traded shares. In that regard, on January 2, 2026, we filed a $200 million shelf registration statement with the SEC, which was declared effective on January 13, 2026. The shelf registration statement provides the company with enhanced flexibility to opportunistically raise capital in the public markets, depending on market conditions and various other factors, which could lead to enhanced float of the company's common shares. There can be no assurance that the company will undertake such an offering.

Finally, recapping the past 12-plus months, we have successfully completed the business combination with Thunder Bridge Capital Partners IV, Inc., and gone public on Nasdaq as a Netherlands-based holding company of Coincheck, Inc., one of the leading crypto exchanges in Japan, built out the organizational structure and team to support being a public reporting company with global reach and operations, acquired Next Finance Tech, a global crypto staking company headquartered in Japan, acquired Aplo, a global prime broker headquartered in Paris, France, announced a strategic partnership between Coincheck, Inc. and Mercoin, a division of Mercari, Inc. in Japan, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 3iQ.

Gone effective with a $200 million shelf registration statement, providing us with flexibility in the capital markets and the ability to increase our float, and announced today a management transition for Pascal St-Jean to assume the role of Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 2026. It has been a very successful year for the company during turbulent times, and while the future is not without numerous risks, Coincheck is well-positioned for the future. I am deeply grateful to the entire Coincheck, Next Finance, Aplo, 3iQ, and Monex teams, and especially Oki, for the opportunity to work with each of you and your tireless efforts over these many years to accomplish the first phase of a combined vision of how digital financial services evolve globally and how they serve for the betterment of the world.

I would like to now turn the call over to Pascal, so he can share his vision for Coincheck going forward.

Thank you, Gary. First, I need to say how exciting it is for me to be given the opportunity to lead this company in the execution of the next stage of a strategy to be a leading global crypto financial services company. We've brought together four distinct pools of amazing individuals and talent, Coincheck and Next Finance Tech in Japan, 3iQ in North America, and Aplo in Europe. Our team members come from different countries. They speak different languages, and they bring different cultural perspectives. But whether they are in Tokyo, Toronto or Paris, they all share a single DNA. They live and breathe the transformation that digital assets are bringing to the world. They understand that we're not just building crypto products, we're building the infrastructure where crypto and traditional finance continue to converge. And it is with this shared conviction that drives our strategy forward.

Now, I want to reiterate exactly what Coincheck Group is building. While our deep roots began in Japan, our ambition and our execution is now truly global. We're evolving from a leading national exchange into a leading, diversified global institutional crypto group. We're positioning the company to win on two massive fronts simultaneously. The first, the Japanese market, where we're positioning ourselves for a major regulatory unlocking with a clear line of sight as the groundwork continues to progress, and we're gaining confidence from our discussions with both regulators and the industry at large in Japan. And the second is the global institutional market, where we're aggressively winning clients today. We operate in Japan with a high conviction and anticipate a fundamental regulatory shift that will broadly open the market in Japan for institutions and mass retail participation in digital assets.

Major financial institutions in Japan are already preparing for this possibility, and Coincheck Group N.V. is at the center of these discussions. Our goal is clear: to be the undisputed incumbent partner as the market develops and matures. We are building the infrastructure now to both shape and secure that future. Now, however, we are not just waiting for Japan to open up. We're actively executing a global strategy right now. With the pending additions of 3iQ under Coincheck Group N.V., we are building a powerful distribution team that's looking far beyond Tokyo. Working together, we're already targeting institutional capital and global logos across North America, Europe, and Asia. Our value proposition is no longer limited to Japanese retail access. We are offering a sophisticated suite of institutional services that appeals to asset managers, banks, sovereigns, and family offices worldwide.

Our land and expand strategy, as I call it, supports this dual focus. At a macro level, we've successfully landed by capturing the Japanese mass market. We remain the number one downloaded crypto app in Japan, a position we've held for 7 years. The business is our bedrock. It provides the liquidity, the brand trust, and the financial strength that fuels our expansion. We're gonna continue to invest in growing our user base and expanding our products and services for our Japanese retail customers. The strategic partnership with Mercoin is a prime example, but we're also expanding by deploying an institutional stack designed for global clients. Through our strategic acquisitions, including 3iQ for asset management, Aplo for prime brokerage, and Next Finance Tech for staking infrastructure, we believe we've assembled the capabilities necessary to serve sophisticated players anywhere in the world.

Now, as we zoom in, our land and expand strategy is about growing our distribution network. Our newly acquired diversified products and solutions are aimed at traditional financial institutions. Globally, these institutions are looking for partners to help them enter the crypto space. In our view, they don't want to build the infrastructure themselves. They will want to leverage ours. This should enable us to win global clients and capture assets under management, assets under custody, and trading flows, diversifying our revenue streams globally. Finally, I want to touch on how these pieces fit together. We're not simply a holding company with a collection of unrelated assets. We are actively working on cross-integrating our portfolio companies to create a deep regulatory, structural, and technological moat that will be difficult for competitors to fully bridge.

By combining our asset management, prime brokerage, and infrastructure capabilities, we're focused on building a unified ecosystem. This integration should allow us to unlock efficiencies and offer comprehensive solutions that standalone competitors simply should not be able to match. We aim to create a structure where the whole is significantly greater than the sum of its parts, making our business more defensible and stickier for institutional clients. To summarize, while we are one of the dominant forces in retail Japan today, we are not limiting our ambitions to Japan. With the addition of 3iQ and Aplo, we are winning global institutional logos right now.

We believe we are well positioned to not only capture an increased market share of the Japanese institutional and retail wave we expect will come from the anticipated further regulatory easing on the horizon in Japan, but we should also be able to capture a meaningful piece of the global markets today. Much of what we've built already, as we bring the synergies together, will serve not only Japan, but as we have proven with 3iQ and Aplo, can also serve the global markets. Our plan is to build a global financial group with a clear path to long-term growth. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Oki Matsumoto, Coincheck Group's Executive Chairperson.

Thank you, Pascal, and thank you, Gary and Jason. I believe Pascal has summarized beautifully where we are today and where we plan to go, so I will be brief in my concluding remarks. First, I want to thank Gary. With acquisition of 3iQ, Gary has led the company to the next stage of its growth strategy. He has been a highly effective leader for our transition to a Nasdaq-listed company and building the initial structural foundation for our global strategy. And we and the entire Coincheck Group community thank him for his leadership and wish him the absolute best in his future pursuits. Pascal is ideally suited to lead the next phase of our strategy, which, as Pascal shared, is to grow our institutional presence in the crypto industry, both in Japan and other regions.

We plan to do this by shifting from an acquisition strategy to numerous types of B2B and B2B2C strategic alliances with large financial institutions and funds that we believe will be attracted to the combined platforms and services our operating subsidiaries can offer. This is truly the beginning of the next phase of Coincheck Group growth strategy, and I look forward to what we will be able to accomplish.

... This concludes our call. I thank each of you for joining. We will now open the call up to questions.

Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, press star one on your keypad. To leave the queue at any time, press star two. Once again, that is star one to ask a question. We'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone a chance to join the queue. Thank you. Our first question comes from Edward Engel with Compass Point. Your line is open.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Pascal, congrats on the new role. Wanted to ask two questions. The first one, a bit more pointed, on Japan. Just based on what you're hearing over there, just kind of curious if there's any update on potential tax reform, especially related to gains on crypto transactions.

Thank you. Happy to jump in, and if anyone wants to add, I just came back a few days ago from a few weeks in Japan with Oki and some of our team members, meeting with, of course, regulators as well as some large institutions. Without committing to an actual date, I will say that the environment is very much converging together in Japan to set clarity on the tax side, as well as the change from a monetary policy to basically a financial instrument, which will change the tax code, but also change its ability to serve as a financial asset in different types of funds, balance sheet structures, et cetera.

I was coming back here to North America and kind of sharing with the team that Japan feels like North America last year before the election, where a lot of institutions were gearing up, getting educated, building crypto teams, and really getting ready for the unlock, which happened, of course, in 2025. And it's kind of the same feeling that we're seeing in Japan. And I would say more than feelings, it's actual conversations we're having, and everyone's kind of gearing up for sort of the proposed dates that you may have heard online. But we're looking forward to the continued conversations with these institutions and the regulators.

Great, thanks for that. And then now just-

Yeah.

Yeah, sorry.

I'm sorry, can I—If I can add one thing, the tax reform is for retail investors. So if it's ETF for those kind of retail-targeted funds, that are really important. But for institutional investors in Japan, the tax reforms is not needed. You know, even today, before or after the tax reform over crypto in Japan, for institutional investors, the situation is the same. So we are seeing the really growing interest from institutional investors, you know, start entering into this crypto space, even before the tax reform does happen.

Great. Thanks for that color. And then I guess a bit more of a broad question, but I guess with the new change in leadership, I mean, certainly the company has been pretty active in M&A over the past 1.5 years since you've really been public, and obviously Gary has a pretty long history in his own career, just of M&A. Does the leadership transition impact the company's appetite for M&A, or is it kind of the same strategy as before?

Happy to jump in here. So fundamentally, right now, I think, like Gary and Oki have brought together four very strong companies. Right now, we're, as we mentioned, we're really preparing to, you know, bring together these four companies for the Japanese market and the regulatory unlock, as well as support and sort of digest the M&A we've done so far. We've got a great, you know, young team over at Aplo, and of course, you know, the team over at 3iQ, which I lead, and the continued growth at Coincheck and Next Finance Tech we're seeing. So we really want to make sure that we support the companies that we've acquired, getting them to really start working together, which we have begun exploring certain synergies together and really working on the engineering level.

So we want to digest that over the coming quarters. With that being said, as we see the markets evolve, we're, I think we're going to remain opportunistic to those types of opportunities, and we'll take it case by case based on what we're seeing in the markets that could add to sort of maybe potential gaps or opportunities we see in the market. So it's a dual approach, but for now, right now, it's really digesting and making sure that the companies we have acquired are primed for success for the year to come.

Great. Well, thanks again, and then once again, congrats.

We'll move next to Alex Markgraff with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Thank you, and Gary, congrats on the accomplishments in a short period of time. Pascal, congrats on the new role. I guess, Pascal, one for you. Just, I'd be curious to understand how you might think about the size of growth opportunities in the, you know, call it, next 12 months between Japan retail versus broader sort of global institutional opportunities?

Yeah, so I won't necessarily speak to specific numbers, but you know, the team could speak to some of the growth we've seen in the past quarters. But fundamentally speaking, at the institutional side, the biggest difference between the last downtrend in crypto in 2021 and 2022, where you know, collectively, I think a lot of companies, including 3iQ and others, were speaking at a high level with institutions who were starting to sort of dip their toes into the crypto markets. Of course, the FTX collapse and things of that nature set them backwards, but the major difference right now is, although you know, price action across all markets are in a downtrend right now, the institutions are not wavering at all.

You'll be hearing some announcements from some of our core companies in the coming weeks and months. The conversations, you know, in the past few weeks, even in Japan, that we were having with very large institutions in the middle of the price downtrend continued to be steadfast in terms of how they execute and how to bring things together and how to get things ready. So in the coming year, what we're seeing right now in the Japanese market is definitely the planning for the institutions to enter that market. On the retail side, we'll see and monitor and explore how the trading continues, but Coincheck, Inc.

is working on several other products and features to continue enhancing the opportunities for their clients, as well as partners like Mercari and others that we're exploring. And on our side, I would say, and I say our side, sorry, but 3iQ's side, as I'm speaking of 3iQ's side, today with that hat, we are in talks more than ever with new logos and allocators as well. And so we're seeing the market continue moving forward, and I think fundamentally we're seeing this as a very positive entry position. And so we continue with that positive vibe as we enter, you know, 2026.

That's great to hear. I appreciate that. Maybe just one sort of one more on just recent sort of price action across the ecosystem. You know, Gary or Jason or Pascal, I'm not sure who this is appropriate for, but just curious to understand how on the retail side, in particular, Coincheck customers are sort of reacting more recently. So, you know, call it late January, February, around price declines, just you know, you're seeing sort of net buyers, sellers, what kind of deposit activity are you seeing to the platform? Anything around that would be helpful, just to understand customer retail customer behavior at this point. Thank you.

So that may be. I should explain for that. So the retail customers in Japan, of course, you know, they are a little bit surprised by the price action. But if you look at the asset in custody, the value of course went down, but the number of tokens actually never went down. So people are kind of holding to the positions. And we do see, especially in the altcoins, we did see good buying into this market from retail customers. And also, the one thing is, because of the tax reform is not done yet, Japanese customers do not really want to sell to realize a profit.

So they're kind of, you know, holding to the position and then buying into dip, and they're increasing the number of tokens right now. So that's the kind of picture in Japan right now in the retail space.

Understood. Thank you, Oki.

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your keypad now. We'll move next to Brett Knoblauch with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. And Gary, congrats on, and Pascal, congrats on the new role, and Gary, congrats on the transition. Maybe just on 3iQ, it's a sizable acquisition for you guys, kind of given the relative market cap and purchase price. Could you maybe give a little bit more color on, you know, potential synergies you guys are thinking, whether it be accretive on Adjusted EBITDA or just maybe the financial profile of 3iQ from a revenue perspective, and maybe how, what we should expect, you know, or how that business has been growing, you know, historically, and what you're expecting it to do on a go-forward basis?

Yes, I'll let Pascal talk about the business, but one area that I think, you know, any analyst should be focused on, on this year is really announced wins. If we look at the market, everyone on this call knows that you can't predict where crypto's going price-wise. And so the clearer goal is what wins they'll be, what expansion they'll be, and then wherever assets trade, they trade. So if you look at the opportunities that, and I'll let Pascal speak to them, that 3iQ has before them, they're very promising. That's number one. They bring so many things to the company, in addition to enhanced management and the skills of Pascal and others, but also this opportunity for synergies and liquidity providing that Aplo could potentially do for 3iQ.

And it's a very known quantity. You know, I've done M&A a very long time, and the big risks in M&A are integration. And here, the company's been well known to us. It should be an easy company to integrate, which means we can accelerate getting synergies, enhanced products, and that's very meaningful on transaction. It helps de-risk them. And as you know, Oki's philosophy, my philosophy, has been do no harm and be fairly conservative. And so I think that sets that table well also.

with crypto prices softening, there's always a concern about overpaying, and I think one of the reasons the company is going to catch its breath now to really integrate and get synergies is there could be too big a gap going forward between what valuations are, expectations, and what a company prudently should be paying. So, that's something else that we're looking at going forward. So Pascal, do you wanna speak more about 3iQ in detail?

Yeah. Thank you, Gary. I think that was a great point in terms of what we're expecting this year. I think fundamentally, 3iQ, as a company, over the past several years, has expanded its capabilities. A lot of people know us in the industry as sort of the OGs on the closing funds and the ETFs and really the pioneer work we've done with the regulators. But we've evolved quite drastically as a company now. So we have several different divisions, including some advisory, as well as our managed account platform, servicing the institutional market.

So when Gary is talking about, you know, basically logo wins or partnership wins, our distribution team, yes, it's focused at educating and bringing, you know, institutional capital into different types of active products that fit more of their portfolios, but also supporting institutions trying to get into crypto asset management, and that is what you're gonna see a lot of from 3iQ as it gets included into Coincheck. You're gonna see a lot of these types of opportunities surfacing and coming public to the table, which will open up new distribution channels, not only for AUM growth, but for cross-sales opportunities over time, as these institutions look for more than just asset management, potentially staking and liquidity capabilities.

So the land and expand from a sales perspective is something that we are bringing to the table, as asset management is a natural entry point. Asset management's also a natural integration point. To Gary's earlier answer, whether it's liquidity, staking, you know, custody, et cetera, there is work to do to bring all that together as a group. But particularly for the Japanese market, where the institutions of Japan are looking to work with Japanese domiciled companies, there will be a lot of opportunities for us to bring those services together, which was part of my role coming in as growth officer a few months ago. So been working hand-in-hand with the team since then, and so you're gonna see that continued approach, and more and more tangible examples.

Awesome. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. This concludes today's question and answer session, and also brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.