Cryptocurrency Exchange Huobi Pro Quits Japan Operations From July 2 Onwards

Cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan are having a tough time recently after the Japanese regulatory watchdog - Financial Services Agency (FSA) - has increased its scrutiny on their operations. Just two weeks back, the Japanese FSA initiated an investigation on six top-most crypto exchanges of the country including bitFlyer which has been asked to revise its anti-money laundering and KYC policies.

Amidst the growing involvement of the regulatory body, Seychelles-based digital currency exchange Huobi Pro has announced to quit its Japanese operations next week onwards from July 2. As reported by local news publication Coinpost, the exchange announced its decision in an email on Wednesday. From July 2, the exchange would suspend its trading services and it also detailed that it would remove it Japan-centric pages from its homepage then onwards.

The local publication also mentions that one of the major reasons for Huobi Pro to pull out of Japan was that it isn’t registered with the Financial Service Agency (FSA) which is now a mandatory requirement for any exchange to operate in Japan. The Payment Service Act implemented in April 2016 mandates all the exchange to be identified for operating legal in the country.

This decision from Huobi Pro, however, comes as a big surprise considering the fact that it had established a strategic partnership Japanese financial giant SBI earlier this year. As a part of the partnership, the two giants were expected to launch a cryptocurrency exchange but later SBI called-off these plans to proceed with launching its own digital currency exchange called ‘SBI Virtual Currencies’.

The latest data statistics show that nearly 14 percent of visitors on Huobi Pro come from Japan. In such case, Huobi’s exit could possibly mean a big dent on its business operations.

Along with Huobi Pro, another Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange HitBTC has also announced that it would temporarily suspend its services to Japanese residents which is the direct consequence of the FSA mandating crypto businesses to get themselves registered with the regulatory body.

However, HitBTC also mentions that it is currently in talks with the regulatory agency and has expressed its intention to launch a digital currency exchange that is compliant and regulated under the existing policies.