A financial data provider and bitcoin exchange operator in Japan is testing a digital bond denominated in the cryptocurrency.

As reported earlier this week by Bloomberg, Fisco – which launched a bitcoin exchange in September of last year and has invested in other exchanges like TechBureau – issued a test bond worth 200 bitcoins. A bond is a kind of debt issued over a certain period of time, usually paying out some form of interest in addition to the principal amount.

The three-year bond was exchanged from one company within the Fisco umbrella to another, according to the publication, and is said to provide a 3 percent return over the three-year period.

That companies in Japan would move in this direction is perhaps unsurprising, given that it only a few months ago, Japan's government passed and signed into law new statutes that recognize bitcoin as a legal payment instrument. At the same time, the new laws brought domestic bitcoin exchanges under the auspices of Japanese financial regulators.

Other firms have looked to the tech as a vehicle for issuing bonds, including European automaker Daimler, which issued a €100 million corporate bond through a private version of the ethereum network.

In comments to Bloomberg, Masayuki Tashiro, Fisco's chief product officer, suggested that the trial could lead to a new way to generate revenue – provided it receives a blessing from the government.

Tashiro suggested that the exchange may move to test other kinds of cryptocurrency-based debt in the future.

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