Huobi Japan (BitTrade) Launch Operations as a Fully Regulated Exchange

Huobi Japan, the cryptocurrency exchange re-born as a result of a merger between BitTrade and Huobi Group, has now resumed operations as a wholly-regulated exchange by Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA), according to a press release on January 17, 2019.

Huobi Japan Gets FSA Greencard

As reported by BTCManager in September 2018, as part of Huobi Group’s strategy to help its Japanese arm restart operations in the region, the firm acquired a majority stake in BitTrade, an exchange previously licensed by the FSA.

Now, thanks to that forward-thinking maneuver, Huobi Japan (BitTrade) has resumed business in the state as a fully-regulated exchange.

Commenting on the latest development, Huobi Group founder and CEO, Leon Li, noted that the relaunch of Huobi Japan represents a massive milestone for the firm, as the Japanese market is essential to its existence.

“We’re proud to say that Huobi Japan now has one of the first 17 licenses issued under the FSA’s oversight,” he added.

Per the Huobi Japan team, users of its platform can now trade bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), XRP, Monacoin (MONA) and bitcoin cash (BCH) in a trading environment that has been strengthened with DDoS attack countermeasures, A+ ranked SSL certification, a 24-hour dedicated customer service team, and more.

To celebrate the huge success, Huobi Japan has made it clear that customers will enjoy zero transaction fees for a limited period, as well as a comprehensive market analysis from Huobi Research and educational content via its Twitter handle.

#ETH data 2019-01-16Total transaction volume: 2649870.4 ETH (11.0%)Average transaction: 5.2195 ETH (18.1%)Number of transaction: 507687 (-6.0%)Trans over 10000 ETH: 15 (36.4%)Trans over 1000 ETH: 266 (-8.0%)Active adress: 216882 (-11.5%)tps: 5.876 (-6.0%) — Huobi Research (@Huobi_Research) January 17, 2019

While Japan remains one of few the countries in the world that has a liberal stance towards bitcoin and other blockchain-based virtual currencies, bad actors have taken advantage of the region’s crypto-friendliness to wreak havoc on exchanges, leaving the FSA with no other option than to tighten its oversight.

In April 2018, the FSA set up a working group consisting of the big whales in the Japanese crypto ecosystem including the Consumer Affairs Agency, Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Finance, to formulate robust regulations to govern the operations of exchanges in the state.

In September 2018, the FSA announced it had put in place more stringent screening processes for prospective exchanges and cryptocurrency trading venues interested in doing business in the country.

Even with the increased oversight, more and more businesses remain determined to meet the requirements of the agency. On January 14, 2019, BTCManager informed that Coincheck had secured a full cryptocurrency exchange license from the FSA after meeting the high standards of the agency.