Japan’s FSA Says Bitget And Other Exchanges Are Unregistered
Japan’s FSA has warned about four crypto platforms: Bybit, Bitget, BitForex, and MEXC Global.
The Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan sent a warning letter to Bitget, Bybit, MEXC Global, and BitForex, four of the most popular cryptocurrency platforms, because they had not registered properly.
In 2021, the watchdog found out that Bybit had started providing services without the right licenses.
FSA’s Latest Warning
In a recent letter, the Japanese regulator said that the four companies broke the country’s laws on fund settlement by “running crypto asset exchange business without being registered.” It also said that the number of unlicensed traders “does not necessarily show how unregistered business is going at the moment.”
The platforms that were flagged are among the best in their fields. Together, they have more than 21 million users. It’s important to note that the FSA sent Bybit a similar notice in the spring of 2021.
The watchdog said at the time that the company didn’t have permission to sell its goods and services in Japan. Bybit was in the middle of a marketing campaign aimed at investors in the Land of the Rising Sun when the alert came. Some people, like Norbert Gehrke, who started Tokyo Fintech, thought that this might be one reason why the regulator did what it did:
“Such public reprimand for running an unregistered business has not occurred for a while, so one is to assume that the FSA has witnessed aggressive marketing by Bybit to Japanese investors that goes beyond the common transgressions of presenting their website in Japanese and not blocking Japanese IP addresses.”
Some of Japan’s Giants left
Kraken and Coinbase, two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, said they were leaving the country because the domestic market wasn’t good enough. The first one was taken off the Financial Services Agency’s list at the end of January.
“Current market conditions in Japan, in combination with a weak crypto market globally, mean the resources needed to further grow our business in Japan aren’t justified at this time. As a result, Kraken will no longer service clients in Japan through Payward Asia.”
Coinbase told customers in Japan to get rid of their crypto holdings by February 17. People who didn’t do this had their money changed to JPY. Nana Murugesan, who is Coinbase’s Vice President of Business Development and International, said:
“We’ve decided to wind down the majority of our operations in Japan, which led to eliminating most of the roles in our Japan entity.”
Binance, on the other hand, increased its presence in Japan by buying Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC) in November of last year. The FSA keeps an eye on this Japanese cryptocurrency organization.
