Approved in June, the Nasdaq-listed, leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange began trading in Japan.
Top U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is open for business in Japan, the Nasdaq-listed firm announced in an Aug. 18 blog post.
Founded in 2012, CEO Brian Armstrong's exchange boasts more than 68 million customers and operates in more than 100 countries.
Noting that Japan was among the first countries to embrace crypto and one of the top markets by trade volume, Coinbase Japan intends to begin with five top assets aimed at retail customers — Bitcoin, Ether, Stellar, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash — with more to be added in the coming months.
It will also add local versions of its advanced traders platform, Coinbase Pro, as well as Coinbase for Institutions.
“In line with our global strategy, we will aim to be the easiest to use and most trusted exchange in Japan that’s fully compliant with local regulations,” the blog post said.
Coinbase has teamed up with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) — one of the largest banks in Japan, with 40 million Japanese customers.
That allowed Coinbase to make MUFG Quick Deposit available from day one. It will “help millions of people in Japan access our platform quickly and begin trading on our exchange,” the company said.
Follow the Rules
Coinbase has long focused heavily on complying strongly with regulators in the markets it serves.
It currently is tied for second place on the CoinMarketCap Exchange Score leaderboard. Along with trade volume, average liquidity and web traffic, the metric also assesses how reliable an exchange’s numbers are.
The approval by Japan’s famously tough Financial Services Agency (FSA) was first announced on June 18 — a week before the financial watchdog warned top global exchange Binance that it was not registered to do business in Japan.
Binance has been pummeled by a series of regulatory warnings and actions across Asia, Europe in recent months, which led CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao to announce the exchange was “pivoting from reactive compliance to proactive compliance.”
