Amid a tightening regulatory environment, cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Pro has announced it will no longer serve customers in Japan. But the company’s American counterpart, HUBS, is gearing up for a launch next week.
Japanese outlet CoinPost reported[1] on June 27 that Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Pro announced it will cease operating in Japan on July 2.
Japanese users of the exchange were apparently informed of the suspension of services via email. So far, no official announcement has been made on Huobi Japan's Twitter page[2] or on the Huobi website[3].
Japan has seen a drastic increase in regulatory pressure following the Coincheck hack[4] in January. The Financial Services Agency (FSA) began inspecting[5] cryptocurrency exchanges, issuing improvement orders[6], even forcing some to cease operations[7]. A group of 16 exchanges joined forces to form a self-regulatory group, called the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association[8] (JVCEA). Huobi was never a member of the JVCEA, and it never registered with the FSA.
To date, no foreign exchange[9] has registered with the FSA. US-based exchange Kraken similarly ceased Japanese operations[10] in April.
There were plans for a partnership between Huobi and Japanese bank SBI Holdings, which may have been intended to facilitate Huobi's acceptance by the Japanese authorities. However, in March, SBI announced[11] the companies had parted ways.
Huobi also recently revealed[12] that its "US strategic partner," HBUS, will begin exchanging cryptocurrencies on July 6. HBUS is taking care to comply with US regulations and registered with FinCEN[13] on March 21.
Tim Prentiss is a writer and editor for ETHNews. He has
