This businessman is - so the statement said - the first foreign investor to hold all of a Japanese Financial Service Agency licensed trading platform.

A Singaporean entrepreneur, Eric Cheng, who is chief executive of Upper Joyful Limited, has bought two Japanese firms to operate foreign exchange and crypto-currency trading, highlighting continued for controversial digital currencies.

The acquisition, for S$67 million ($50 million) will see Cheng take the entire controlling stake in FX Trade Financial Co., Ltd and its affiliate company, BitTrade Co., Ltd. The move means he becomes the first foreign investor to hold a 100 per cent stake in a Japanese Financial Service Agency licensed trading platform, according to a statement.

Part of the rationale behind the move is that almost a third of global bitcoin transactions - as at December last year - were denominated in yen, the statement continued.

BitTrade is one of 16 regulated and Japanese government-approved crypto currency trading platforms. In a similar acquisition, media giant Yahoo Japan invested between $18.5 million to $27.8 million for a 40 per cent stake in BitARG, a crypto-currency exchange which had also been granted a license from the country's Financial Service Agency to operate a domestic crypto currency trading platform.

"The management team of both platforms will aggressively scale up the platform to provide more trading options and services, enhance its international user-friendly experience," the statement said.

While bitcoin and other crypto-currencies have seen wild gyrations in price action over the past year, and some regulatory authorities have frowned on them amid concerns about their being conduits for illicit transactions, interest in the currencies, and underlying distributed ledger tech ("blockchain") continues, including among the wealth management sector.

"The crypto currency industry is growing exponentially. Against this backdrop, the key to capturing the rising demand is having a well-regulated and licensed outfit. With this Japanese FSA-licensed platform, I will work closely with the regulators to scale this platform globally," Cheng said.

Cheng founded and is CEO of the Sevens Group of companies which invests in real estate development, automobiles and other investments. He has held several C-suite level management positions in listed companies across Asia.