According to a local report, the Japan-based crypto exchange Bitflyer has acquired the failed Japanese unit of FTX. The report indicates that arrangements are currently underway to take over the business. Bitflyer Acquires Bankrupt FTX Japan, Local Report Claims On June 20, 2024, NHK reported that Japan’s Bitflyer acquired the now-defunct Japanese unit of FTX. […]
Bitcoin News
Japanese Crypto Exchange BitFlyer Reports $6.9M Loss in 2019
bitFlyer, a Tokyo-based crypto exchange, reported a 750 million yen loss for the financial year 2019.
The deficit surfaced due to weaker-than-expected sales and return-on-investment, according to the firm’s business report.
Bitcoin’s massive drop in the second half of 2019, as well as strict local regulations, further maximized bitFlyer’s losses.
Japanese crypto exchange bitFlyer lost about 750 million yen (~.9 million) in 2019, according to its latest business report.
The Tokyo-based crypto trading firm reported that its business revenue in the said fiscal year was close to .33 million. Nevertheless, closing down in the middle of 2018 led to a dramatic drop in their sales and return-on-investments, while operational expenses touched circa .5 million.
bitFlyer’s revenue sheet
The losses followed a string of events that kept bitFlyer from operation at its full potential. It started with the Financial Services Agency’s scrutiny of the exchange in mid-2018. The agency found problems in its security and compliance system, adding that the exchange was unable to prevent money laundering and hackers from gaining access to users’ crypto accounts.
An official even noted that one of the traders had registered himself at bitFlyer using a post office address.
A Long Service Halt
In its response, the exchange announced that it would halt accepting new businesses. It started opening new accounts only after July 2, 2019 – the time when bitcoin was trading 225 percent higher on a year-to-date timeframe.
bitFlyer started accepting new customers after Bitcoin had topped near ,000 in 2019 | Source: TradingView.com
Nevertheless, its income started deteriorating after Bitcoin fell from its ,000-top to below ,500 in the latter half of 2019. The low prices ensued lower trade volumes. Meanwhile, additional scrutiny kept the exchange from offering overleveraged margin trading services – it reduced the leverage from 15x to 4x.
Local crypto news source CoinPost.jp further noted an increase in the fund outflow of from bitFlyer between 2018 and 2019. Traders who sought overleveraged alternatives moved their capital out of the Japanese exchange – a move that hugely benefited its unregulated rivals such as BitMEX.
bitFlyer Eyeing Recovery
After facing headwinds after headwinds, bitFlyer started normalizing its operations by adding new, regulated assets on its trading platform, as well as getting in the good books of FSA.
In December 2019, the firm listed Ripple’s XRP on its exchange. Four months later, it added another popular crypto, the Basic Attention Token. As of May, bitFlyer also became one of the few Japanese crypto exchanges to have its advertising commercial air on national television.
With bitcoin’s adoption surging higher against the ongoing financial crisis, the exchange could make a comeback owing to increase regional demand for crypto tokens.
NewsBTC
BitFlyer Launches Simple Bitcoin Buying and Selling Service for EU Market
The European arm of Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer has launched a bitcoin buying and selling service aimed to be easy to use.
CryptScout #BitFeed RSS – Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency News 24/7
Sumitomo and BitFlyer Blockchain to Build Real Estate Platform in Japan
n bitFlyer operator plans smartphone-based blockchain real estate solutionn
CryptScout #BitFeed RSS – Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency News 24/7
BitFlyer, Sumitomo Aim to Wrap up the Property Rentals Business With a Blockchain App
BitFlyer Blockchain and Japanese business giantSumitomo Corporation will develop a blockchain app allowing users tosign rental contracts and more.
CryptScout #BitFeed RSS – Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency News 24/7
BitFlyer to Resume Opening New Accounts After One Year Voluntary Suspension
BitFlyer suspended its exchange service after an inquiry from Japan’s Financial Services Agency.
CryptScout #BitFeed RSS – Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency News 24/7
bitFlyer Conducts European Study of Consumer Crypto Confidence
n nn nn On April 24, 2019, Japanese crypto and blockchain company bitFlyer released the results of a study assessing public confidence in crypto assets of 10,000 people across 10 European nations.bitFlyer shared the findings with Bitcoin Magazine, providing details around its methodology. The 10,000 respondents were selected from 10 pools of 1,000 people from each participating nation Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain
CryptScout #BitFeed RSS – Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency News 24/7
Japan’s bitFlyer Halts Taking on New Business to Fix Issues Following FSA Order
bitFlyer, Japan’s largest Bitcoin exchange, is being forced to stop taking on new business after regulators said it wasn’t doing enough to stop money laundering and terrorist financing.
The move by the Tokyo-based exchange saw a drop in the price of the coin and highlights how the country’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), is moving against exchanges they have doubts about. On top of bitFlyer, today also saw business-improvement orders issued to five other cryptocurrency exchange operators.
What Was bitFlyer Doing Wrong?
The FSA said it found several problems related to bitFlyer’s security system, including a lack of measures in place to prevent money laundering and unauthorized access. One agency official, according to the Wall Street Journal, said the inspections found problematic accounts, too, like one registered using a post-office box as a mailing address.
The agency also said that bitFlyer board members were mainly friends of the exchange’s chief executive, Yuzo Kano, a former trader at Goldman Sachs who co-founded the company.
Further, the FSA said that when bitFlyer registered with the government last year, it provided false information about its plans to prevent ‘antisocial forces’ (organized crime) from using the exchange.
These regulatory woes have certainly come at a bad time for Kano. Earlier this year he hired more than 150 Wall Street experts to help grow his exchange. For now, the bitFlyer’s future remains uncertain.
In a statement, bitFlyer apologized to its existing customers and clarified that it would halt taking on new customers until it addressed the regulators’ findings. The exchange is set to submit the plan for improving its operations to the FSA by July 23.
“Our management and all employees are united in our understanding of how serious these issues are,” bitFlyer said.
Kano also posted on Twitter about the incident:
この度はご心配とご迷惑をおかけし大変申し訳ございません。今回の処分を真摯に受け止め改善に全力を尽くします。
— 加納裕三 (Yuzo Kano) (@YuzoKano) June 22, 2018
Japan’s Cryptocurrency Regulation
Masanori Kusunoki, chief technology officer at Japan Digital Design Inc. and a member of a Financial Services Agency study group on cryptocurrency exchanges, said the agency was shifting to a tighter stance after seeing the new rules as a way to foster innovation in the digital currency space.
“There’s a trend for regulators around the world to see [cryptocurrencies] increasingly as a method of speculation. And if it is a tool of speculation, they need to respond firmly from the perspective of investor protection,” Kusunoki said.
He added that if exchanges address the problems, there was still room for Japan to be a global cryptocurrency leader:
“It could actually spur the maturation of the market and ultimately lead to greater competitiveness.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The post Japan’s bitFlyer Halts Taking on New Business to Fix Issues Following FSA Order appeared first on NewsBTC.
BitFlyer Cherry-picks Wall Street Experts to Dominate Crypto Market
BitFlyer founder is poaching Wall Street executives to fill the roles he sees necessary to build a crypto empire in the developing institutional market.
BitFlyer Hires Talent Away from Banking Giants
Yuzo Kano, a former Goldman Sachs trader himself, has been hiring talent away from Wall Street and other high finance addresses to create depth of experience in his own ranks as he looks to expand bitFlyer into the emerging institutional crypto market.
Regulation reform throughout early 2018 has made Japan the prime location for expanding crypto exchange services globally as the government has given the go-ahead missing in most other countries including the US and Britain. This regulatory OK makes the transaction from traditional banking to the crypto world a less daunting move for mid-career experts.
Bloomberg reports,
“Kano’s team, which includes a former fixed-income desk head at Barclays Plc and an ex-senior private banker at Credit Suisse Group AG, has doubled to more than 150 people in the past six months and is on pace to top 300 before year-end.”
BitFlyer has tripled its users since 2017 to 2 million and thanks in part to Bitcoin margin contracts that have proven popular with Japanese day traders the exchange has averaged about 2 billion a day through April into early May. The exchange already has offices in Tokyo, San Francisco, and Luxembourg and is considering expansion that would include locations in Africa, Australia and other countries in Asia. Kano’s expansion plans reach further than new offices and beyond crypto trading to banking services like digital payment and advisory services for investors and startups interested in launching ICOs.
Kano Expanding bitFlyer into Institional Market
Speaking to Bloomberg from his offices in Tokyo’s Midtown Tower about his hiring spree among the worlds largest banks Kano said “I need to grow headcount. And those with the best skills come from global banks.” before adding “My target is to be number one in the world,”
BitFlyer’s high end editions are only a small part of its expanding team though as the company seeks coders who regardless of educational background, as long as they have proven skills, can make 0,000 a year due in part to the countries underpopulated tech sector. Kano broke down his new hires into two groups bankers in their forties looking for a change from the bureaucracy of finance and associates in their twenties eager for the pace of a startup.
As Kano takes bitFler into the growing crypto market developing around institutional money the very banks he, and other exchanges, have been poaching talent from a slowly moving towards the same space. Kano’s former employer, Goldman Sachs, started the first Wall Street based digital asset trading desk last week to enormous industry interest signalling it wont be long before other giants of finance following the crypto lure as well.
Image from Shutterstock
The post BitFlyer Cherry-picks Wall Street Experts to Dominate Crypto Market appeared first on NewsBTC.
BitFlyer Exchange Toughens User Verification Amid Watchdog Scrutiny
Japanese cryptocurrency exchange BitFlyer says it will revise its know-your-customer procedures after criticism from a financial regulator.
CoinDesk