Coinbase Joined Japan’s Virtual Currency Exchange Association

The American crypto exchange Coinbase joined the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association as a second class member in order to gather an operating license in the country as we are reading in the coming coinbase news today.

Japan has been one of the most advanced crypto markets across the world and the Japanese regulators are strongly supporting the crypto industry but they do have positive regulations to go with it. the JVCEA also supports these efforts making sure that the exchanges should follow the regulations and that they have enough measures to protect the users. The association even received a fund settlement business association status back in 2018 from the Financial Services Authority which allows it to set rules for the crypto exchanges in Japan.

The Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association revealed that Coinbase Joined them as a second-class member effective March 1. There are already members that are waiting in the process of applying for a license while other firms have joined the association The Tokyo Hash and digital asset markets Inc. Coinbase also explained its intentions to establish the Japanese branch in 2018 and also revealed that it had brought in Nao Kitazawa as a new CEO for Japan.

As for the coinbase news, Coinbase explained that they are working on a new license with the FSA but up to this date, they haven’t got the coveted license. The Japanese market is quite developed but there are still no global players there which is a role that Coinbase will seek to fill out. South Korea on the other hand, has a huge number of exchanges such as UpBit and Bithumb while Japan is dominated by smaller platforms tied to bigger conglomerates such as Rakuten and LINE. The only major player in the country is Huobi Global which merged with BitTRade back in January to launch in the country and then extended dramatically by raising $4.6 million from financial services company Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings.

Getting a valid, operating license in Japan, is one of the most difficult processes ever since Coincheck lost more than $500 million to hackers. The FSA cracked down on the industry ever since and wants to enforce even more enhanced security measures in order to avoid similar heists happening in the future.