Japan’s Financial Services Giant SBI Holdings to Start Crypto Exchange Very Soon
Plans about Japan’s biggest financial services company SBI Holdings launching its own crypto exchange are long overdue but now it seems that the company is all set to finally start its operations.
SBI Virtual Currencies was scheduled to launch earlier in the autumn of 2017 and at the most by the early beginning of 2018. However, due to multiple roadblocks coming their way SBI has to put its plans on hold for launching a full-fledged cryptocurrency exchange. Earlier the company had to face some capital issues and fallout of the business alliance agreement with China’s Huobi Group.
Later, following the Coincheck hack earlier this year, the company had to halt its operations due to the revision of the regulatory in spite of SBI having a license to operate as a crypto-trading exchange from the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) since September 2017, last year.
Finally, SBI Holdings is said to have completely updated its plans and looks to officially start its crypto business operations by this summer, said SBI President and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao, during a press conference last week. Kitao said that the exchange “is not a white label of other exchanges but a self-developed” one.
Business Insider Japan has earlier reported that SBI Virtual Currencies has already started offering limited services to few of its customers since January 30. While commenting on which cryptocurrencies the exchange will support, Kitao said that “it is assumed to be major virtual currencies, [including] bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ethereum (ETH), [and] ripple (XRP).”
This time, the company is paying a very careful attention to the time of the launch after facing some headwinds previously due to an unsuitable environment in the crypto market. Kitao said: “When we do it, it will be number one in the blink of an eye so quickly, so even if a tremendous number of customers come, we can build a system that can bear [the workload].”
A local new media publication of Japan - Minkabu quoted Kitao saying that one of the major reasons that separate SBI exchange from others is that “We set the spread to the industry minimum.” Kitao is quite confident that it will boost its exchange to emerge as an industry leader.
Kitao also talked about the importance of building trust within the crypto space. He has also been appointed and recently assumed office as the director of Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association which is a new self-regulating organization.
SBI is currently one of the biggest securities brokerages in the country.