190 Companies seek to enter Japanese crypto market

Japan’s top financial regulator has certified the number of companies wanting to enter the Japanese crypto market currently. Japan’s financial services agency recently confirmed the number of companies that have expressed interest to register as crypto operators. This registers an increase in the number by 30 since the previous count revealed by the agency in August. 160 operators had expressed motive to enter the Japanese crypto market at that time.

Seeing as the FSA did not discuss specific applications, some companies have gone ahead and made announcements themselves in regards to their plans to roll out crypto related businesses. Some of them include Yamane Medical Corp., Daiwa Securities Group, Samurai & J Partners, Yahoo! Japan, and Avex Inc.

Registered crypto-exchanges

Currently there are 16 registered crypto exchanges in Japan. Crypto operators must register with the FSA under the revised payment services act. There are three companies that have been allowed to operate while their applications are being reviewed. The three are known as deemed dealers and they include Lastroots, Everybody’s Bitcoin and Coincheck.

After it was hacked in January, Coincheck was acquired by Monex Group. Mega e-commerce and internet giant Rakuten Inc. acquired Everybody’s bitcoin. Despite acquisitions, the FSA confirmed that Japan still has 16 registered crypto exchanges.

Cointap launch update

The regulated crypto exchange, parent company of DMM bitcoin, announced that it will no longer launch its Cointap app. The company had initially planned to release the app in spring. The e-commerce giant pressed that the group will continue to offer crypto trading services at DMM Bitcoin.

GMO internet, on Tuesday, also announced that it will no longer sell, manufacture or develop crypto mining machines. It will though, continue to mine in-house. GMO, however, said that this decision will not in any way affect services or the development of its Yen-pegged stablecoin, which was announced in October.