Japanese financial services firm Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings will invest about 500 million yen (nearly $4.6 million) in the Japanese branch of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi.

According to a press release on Dec. 26, the investment is part of a broader collaboration with Huobi Japan, wherein Tokai will acquire shares in the exchange. Tokai did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for details regarding the share acquisition. This article will be updated once more information is forthcoming.

Tokai intends to use the partnership with Huobi to promote new businesses in the areas of crypto asset exchange, initial exchange offerings, local currency issuance, and crypto management and storage services.

According to financial news website Financial Times, Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings reported a revenue of 57.57 billion Japanese yen ($252.5 million) over the past 12 months.

The firm stated today that its new partnership is part of a wider effort to adopt new and emerging technologies like blockchain as part of its business development plan.

Focusing on the far east

Huobi’s Japanese subsidiary Huobi Japan Holdings acquired a majority stake in local cryptocurrency exchange BitTrade in September 2018. The firm changed BitTrade’s name to Huobi Japan in February 2019 and continues to facilitate cryptocurrency trading.

Huobi is seemingly focusing its business efforts on the far east as it recently ceased the operations of its United States-based trading platform. The exchange explained that the local regulatory environment forced the firm to prohibit Americans from accessing its services.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are increasingly leveraging partnerships to expand the scope of their operations and diversify their revenue models. Earlier this month, major cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced that it partnered with peer-to-peer crypto trading platform Paxful to sell goods and services and accept 167 fiat currencies.