Coincheck Group N.V. Q3 FY2026 Earnings Call - 3iQ Acquisition and CEO Transition Signal Shift to Global Institutional Push

Conference Moderator: Good afternoon, and welcome to Coincheck Group N.V. fiscal year 2026 third quarter 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 third quarter 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 third quarter 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.

Gary Simanson, Chief Executive Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our fiscal 2026 third quarter 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 third quarter, including trading volumes, assets under management, and margin, were negatively impacted by declines in crypto asset prices experienced globally in our fiscal 2026 third quarter as compared to our fiscal 2026 second quarter, 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 third quarter, up from 2.4 million in our fiscal 2026 second quarter. 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 third quarter, compared to net income of $2.3 million for the fiscal 2026 second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal 2026 third quarter was $9.1 million, versus $9.5 million for the fiscal 2026 second quarter. Total revenue for the fiscal 2026 third quarter was $915 million, compared to $849 million for the fiscal 2026 second quarter. 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 third quarter as compared to our fiscal 2026 second quarter, as well as by the increased mix of revenue in our fiscal 2026 third quarter 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.

Jason Sandberg, Chief Financial Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: ... Thank you, Gary. Let me take you through our third quarter 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 third quarter of fiscal 2026, up from JPY 123.1 billion, or $785 million, in the third quarter 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 third quarter of fiscal 2026, down from JPY 4.8 billion, or $31 million, in the third quarter 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 third quarter of fiscal 2026, down from JPY 117.4 billion, or $749 million, compared to the third quarter 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 third quarter of fiscal 2026, compared to a net loss of JPY 15 billion, or $98.5 million, in the third quarter of fiscal 2025.

A large component of the net loss results for the third quarter 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 third quarter of fiscal 2026, compared to JPY 2,303 million, or $14.7 million, in the third quarter 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 third quarter. Our staking revenue for the fiscal 2026 third quarter was 777 million JPY, or $5 million, compared to 794 million JPY, or $5.1 million, in the second quarter 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 third quarter, compared to JPY 6.4 billion, or $41 million, in the fiscal 2025 third quarter. 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 third quarter selling, general, and administrative expenses, while there were no share-based compensation or similar acquisition expenses in the fiscal 2025 third quarter.

We ended the fiscal 2026 third quarter 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.

Gary Simanson, Chief Executive Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: Thank you, Jason. On our prior fiscal 2026 second quarter’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 first quarter. 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.

Pascal St-Jean, Incoming Chief Executive Officer / Chief Growth Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: 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.

Oki Matsumoto, Executive Chairperson, Coincheck Group N.V.: 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.

Conference Moderator: 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.

Edward Engel, Analyst, Compass Point: 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.

Pascal St-Jean, Incoming Chief Executive Officer / Chief Growth Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: 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.

Edward Engel, Analyst, Compass Point: Great, thanks for that. And then now just-

Oki Matsumoto, Executive Chairperson, Coincheck Group N.V.: Yeah.

Edward Engel, Analyst, Compass Point: Yeah, sorry.

Oki Matsumoto, Executive Chairperson, Coincheck Group N.V.: 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.

Edward Engel, Analyst, Compass Point: 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?

Pascal St-Jean, Incoming Chief Executive Officer / Chief Growth Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: 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.

Edward Engel, Analyst, Compass Point: Great. Well, thanks again, and then once again, congrats.

Conference Moderator: We’ll move next to Alex Markgraff with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Alex Markgraff, Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets: 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?

Pascal St-Jean, Incoming Chief Executive Officer / Chief Growth Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: ... 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.

Alex Markgraff, Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets: 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.

Oki Matsumoto, Executive Chairperson, Coincheck Group N.V.: 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.

Alex Markgraff, Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets: Understood. Thank you, Aki.

Conference Moderator: 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 Noblock with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

Pascal St-Jean, Incoming Chief Executive Officer / Chief Growth Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: 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?

Gary Simanson, Chief Executive Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: 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?

Pascal St-Jean, Incoming Chief Executive Officer / Chief Growth Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: 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.

Gary Simanson, Chief Executive Officer, Coincheck Group N.V.: Awesome. Thank you, guys.

Conference Moderator: 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.