Crypto Startup FXcoin Taps Ex-Deutsche Bank Dealer as Coin Strategist

FXcoin, a Tokyo-based virtual coin startup looking to launch a cryptocurrency exchange, has hired former Deutsche Bank staffer Yasuo Matsuda as a coin strategist, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Matsuda will be in charge of price and technical research, providing FXcoin each month with charts and analyses of cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC). Before joining the Japanese venture, he worked as a foreign-exchange dealer at Deutsche Bank from 2012 until this June.

Matsuda is not the first employee of the German banking giant to join the startup. FXcoin was founded by Tomoo Onishi, who supervised currency sales at Deutsche Bank for more than twelve years before leaving in December to try his luck in the cryptocurrency industry. Since then, Onishi has hired around 15 professionals from his previous employer, including researcher Taisuke Tanaka. Tanaka will make crypto analyses twice a month and will work with Matsuda.

At the moment, FXcoin is in the process of applying for a virtual exchange license from Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA). Under the framework introduced in 2017, companies that want to offer cryptocurrency exchange services must apply for a permit from the financial regulator.

“We are trying to do all we can while we’re waiting for registration,” Onishi, vice chairman of the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market Committee until December 2017, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Although Japan was the world’s first country to regulate the virtual trading industry, its authorities have tightened their regulatory grip after local exchange Coincheck became the target of one of the largest hacks, losing about $530 million in January. Since then, the FSA has conducted on-site inspections and issued business improvements orders to several crypto exchanges. The regulator reportedly plans to tighten the licensing regime for virtual trading platforms by including more questions in the application screening process with the aim of preventing future hacks.