The Japanese Financial Service Agency (FSA) has announced that it has sent warning letters to five cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country that have not followed the registration process. These firms are Bybit, Bitget, KuCoin, bitcastle, and MEXC Global.
Japan Warns Unregistered Crypto Exchanges
According to the announcement, the Japanese authorities opined that under the country’s law code, illegal business operators risk losing government compensation should their businesses suffer financial loss.
Furthermore, crypto exchanges that have yet to get officially registered documents to start operations will not come under the supervision of the Financial Service Agency. Hence, such businesses are not eligible to handle customers’ assets.
Therefore, when an unforeseen occurrence occurs, such as a hack or theft, the Japanese authorities will not be responsible for any damages.
Japanese Crypto-Friendly Outlook
Despite its latest stance against some crypto exchanges, the Japanese government has shown itself to be a crypto-friendly nation. Before 2016, crypto custodian firms in the Asian country were largely unregulated by the authorities. However, in a bid not to restrict innovations like digital assets and blockchain technology, Japan has progressively improved regulations on virtual asset operators in the country.
Despite the country’s economic pressure and the high volatility of the Japanese Yen, several local companies have explored the crypto market. A notable example is Metaplanet, a publicly traded company that showed strategic insight by officially adopting Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset. Since April, the firm has accumulated as much BTC as possible. At the time of writing, Metaplanet has bought 1,142 BTC. These frequent BTC acquisitions have earned Metaplanet the title – Japanese MicroStrategy.
More recently, the United States Securities Exchange Commission approved a Tokyo, Japan-based crypto exchange, CoinCheck, for listing on the Nasdaq Global Market. This marks the first time a Japanese crypto exchange will be publicly traded on a stock exchange in the United States.
