- Two of the largest crypto exchanges have been caught in the thick of the recent regulatory enforcement in Japan.
- In the last week, Binance has been handed a warning while Coinbase has received approval to commence operations.
Japan’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), is one of a few bodies that has recently introduced clear regulations around cryptocurrencies. For starters, it has called on crypto exchanges operating in the region to register with it. Earlier in the week, it was reported that Coinbase had been cleared to begin offering its services in the country after successfully registering with the agency. Going into the weekend, the watchdog is again making headlines after issuing a warning to Binance. According to the watchdog, Binance is operating in the region without having registered with the agency.
Nasdaq-listed Coinbase has been quietly making moves to expand and broaden its reach. In recent months, it has been working with the FSA to enter Japan. With its request approved, the exchange is now set to offer five cryptocurrencies- BTC, LTC, ETH, BCH and XLM. Other cryptocurrencies are set to be added later.
The region will be a key market for Coinbase with Japan offering a crypto-friendly and lucrative clientele. This is crucial with Coinbase shares struggling in recent months. In part, this has been caused by a decline in Bitcoin prices as well as a drop in trading volume as demand for Bitcoin falls.
Binance handed warning
While Coinbase looks to expand in Japan, Binance has come under regulatory fire. According to reports, the FSA has handed Binance a formal warning. The watchdog noted that Binance is not registered and is therefore operating in the country illegally. Binance is the latest platform to be handed with such a warning after crypto derivatives trading platform Bybit was warned back in May.
As CNF reported, Binance is facing other regulatory issues in the U.K and India. TSB Bank in the U.K has banned crypto purchases for 5 million clients, citing concerns over fraudsters using the exchange. TSB Bank noted that there were 849 reports regarding fraud on Binance in a month.
Read More: U.K bank bans crypto purchases for 5M clients, expresses fraud concerns with Binance and Kraken
Earlier in the month, Binance’s WazirX was also said to be under investigation over money laundering in India. WazirX later denied any involvement with the accused ‘crypto king’, Makarand P Adivirkar, who was said to be using WazirX to launder money. In a statement it said,
We want to reiterate that WazirX follows global best practices on KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) compliances and has a robust transaction monitoring system in place. We perform a stringent KYC verification of every user to verify their identity as well as perform a secondary KYC verification through linked bank accounts of users before allowing a customer to transact on WazirX,
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