Japanese Financial Regulator Legalizes Four New Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has authorized the operation of four new virtual currency exchanges in the country as of early December 2017. The approved exchanges are already the second batch of companies authorized by the FSA. In late September, the agency has okayed the applications of the first batch of applicants consisting of 11 exchanges.

In its statement posted on its website, the FSA claimed that only the authorized 15 exchanges should be allowed to trade digital currencies as only the cryptocurrencies that they will handle are confirmed to “meet the definition under the fund settlement law.” The four companies that were approved are Tokyo Bitcoin Exchange Co. Ltd., FTT Corp., Bit Arg Exchange Tokyo Co. Ltd., and Xtheta Corp.

Of the four companies, only Xtheta Corp. was authorized to trade multiple cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), NEM (XEM), and Monacoin (MONA), as well as counterparty tokens (XCP). The rest of the exchanges are only allowed to trade Bitcoin (BTC).

FSA assessing other applications

According to the FSA, other applications are still undergoing evaluation. There were also 12 companies whose applications were rejected because they did not meet the agency’s registration requirements. The disapproved exchanges have already shut down their operations.

Among the applications under review is from Coincheck, which is the second biggest Bitcoin exchange in Japan. In its statement that was released on Dec. 1, the exchange claimed that its application to become a “virtual currency exchange trader” was filed in mid-September and is still under scrutiny until now.

Meanwhile, the FSA released a document detailing its administrative policies that include those covering virtual currencies and initial coin offerings (ICO) in November. The guideline clarifies how the agency will be monitoring the digital currency exchanges.