Kraken Crypto Exchange Exits Japan Amid Rising Cost Of Operations

The Kraken digital currency exchange has announced that it is shutting down its operations in Japan after almost four years in the country and the decision may have been fueled by rising operational costs.

In a recently released statement, the company pointed out that it has been running its operations from Japan since October 2014. It also pointed out that it has decided to wind up its operations in the Asian country due to the rising costs of operations. The statement revealed that the exchange will officially exist Japan in June this year. Kraken is currently among the top ten cryptocurrency exchanges in the world with a daily trading volume of almost $200 million at the time of this press.

It has also been speculated that the exit from Japan might have something to do with the fact that Kraken is not registered with Japan’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA). The latter has recently been pushing crypto exchanges to implement strict measures aimed at protecting users and maximizing security following previous hacks on some of the exchanges. Although it announced that it is exiting Japan, Kraken did not rule out a comeback in the future. It views the exit as merely suspending its operations in Japan until the market becomes favorable.

Kraken also pointed out that the exit will not affect Japanese investors who are outside the country but still rely on Japanese banks. This means they will still be able to access the trading platform. The company stated that suspending its operations in Japan will allow it to focus its resources towards improving its performance especially in other geographical areas where it runs its operations. It also added that the decision was extremely important since sustainability is pegged on whether the revenues and resources are more than the costs involved.

The decision by the cryptocurrency highlights the fact that it is currently pursuing high-growth markets so as to gain stability before focusing on other markets.  Kraken is not the only cryptocurrency exchange that has recently exited the Japanese market.  The strict regulations and requirements recently imposed by the FSA have also forced numerous other exchanges to move their operations out of the country. Binance which is one of the most popular and most successful cryptocurrency exchanges recently received a letter from the FSA ordering it to stop its operations in the country because it had not registered fully with the regulator.