Coinbase, the largest American crypto exchange announced its plans to open subsidiary operating in Japan.
Why it is important
- Despite the tightening of the requirements for cryptoexchanges by Financial Services Agency (FSA), the Japanese market continues to attract new players. Over the past few months, Yahoo Japan, Money Forward, and the SBI Group have unveiled plans to open new cryptoexchanges in the country. The most recent one to launch is VCTRADE, after it was initially delayed due to conserns over security.
- Japanese regulator’s new requirements resulted in departure of some crypto companies from the market. For example, two local crypto-exchanges decided to withdraw their applications for a license from the FSA and exit the business.
Coinbase intends to apply for a necessary license from the FSA since April 2017, as this process is compulsory for all organizations involved in cryptocurrencies transactions.
“Upon our business registration with the FSA, Coinbase services available to Japanese customers will be provided with Japanese language translations for ease of use.”- Coinbase promised in it’s official statement.
According to reports, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) became a partner of the exchange on the Japanese market. The company has already invested more than 1 billion yen in Coinbase. The Japanese branch of Coinbase will support the main cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (Bitcoin) and Ethereum (BITFINEX: ETH / USD.BITFINEX).
Currently, Coinbase provides more than 20 million customers, last year its revenue was $1 billion.
This moves also comes amid last month’s announcement that the banking unit of the Japanese financial group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) will the tril run of its own cryptocurrency in 2019, with 100 000 MUFG’s customers to be able to participate in the experiment.
By Nadya Astam