Cryptocurrency News From Japan: March 8-14 in Review

Published at: March 14, 2020

This week’s headlines from Japan included GMO Coin reporting record transaction volume from February, BitFlyer surpassing 2.5 million users, Tokai Tokyo Securities joining the Japan STO Association, and SBI FX seeking margin trading licensing.

Check out some of this week’s crypto and blockchain headlines, originally reported by Cointelegraph Japan.

GMO coins exchange posts record high numbers

GMO Coin exchange, a subsidiary of GMO Financial Holdings, reported that February yielded all-time high transaction numbers after the exchange added 4x margin trading to its platform.

GMO’s transactions from sales offices, exchange trading, and digital asset FX totalled approximately $7.5 billion in February 2020. The exchange also tallied more than 300,000 customers by January’s end.

BitFlyer hits record high customer count

Tokyo-based exchange BitFlyer said it has amassed more than 2.5 million customers across Japan, the U.S. and Europe. No other exchange is reportedly licensed in all three countries.

BitFlyer’s co-founder and CEO Yuzo Kano said:

“‘One team, one dream’ for all group employees to comply with compliance as the world's only virtual currency exchange approved as a virtual currency exchange company in the three regions of the United States and Europe and to provide customers with peace of mind. I will take on the challenge boldly. "

Japan’s STO movement gains a member

Tokai Tokyo Securities has jumped on board the Japan STO Association — a group positioning itself as a self-regulating organization (SRO in the security token offering (STO) sector.

The Japan STO Association now touts nine participating businesses, including SBI Securities, Daiwa Securities, Monex, Rakuten, and five others.

Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings, the company that owns Tokai Tokyo Securities, has shown interest in the digital securities movement, buying into a digitized security token exchange called iSTOX.

SBI FX plans for margin trading

SBI Group’s daughter company, SBI FX, started its journey toward a margin trading launch on its exchange, seeking licensing as a broker-dealer.

Reporting suggested the exchange will offer 2x leverage, pending the mentioned regulatory approval. SBI did not specify a date expectation for the product’s launch, or the trading pairs involved.

Tags
Regulation
Trading
Cryptocurrency Exchange
Government
Japan
Bitflyer
Related Posts
CFTC charges crypto futures trading platform for failure to register in the US
On Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed charges against Laino Group for soliciting U.S. investors to trade in futures on commodities including Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin without registering with the commission. Per the CFTC's complaint the St. Vincent-registered Laino Group, doing business as PaxForex, used a network of U.S.-based affiliates to solicit American retail investors. In doing so, Laino Group violated the Commodity Exchange Act. The CFTC did not specify the extent of Laino Group's activities. The commission's request for relief indeed suggest that they themselves don't know how much the trading platform took in without registering. In addition …
Regulation / Sept. 28, 2020
Indonesia considers capital gains tax on cryptocurrency trades
Neilmaldrin Noor, a spokesperson for the Indonesian Directorate General of Taxes, said that the authority is considering a tax scheme for capital gains generated from cryptocurrency trades, Reuters reported on Tuesday. “It is important to know that if there is a profit or capital gain generated from a transaction, the profit is an object of income tax,” the official stated. Noor said that Indonesian taxpayers who receive capital gain from crypto trades would have to pay the tax and report it to the government. The official noted that the new crypto tax scheme for capital gains has not been implemented …
Bitcoin / May 11, 2021
Japan Economic Alliance Asks Financial Regulator FSA to Reduce Tax on Crypto
The Japan Association of New Economy (JANE) has asked the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) to reduce the current tax rate for crypto trading income, Cointelegraph Japan reported on Feb. 14. Led by Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, JANE has reportedly sent a proposal request to the country’s financial regulator asking them to tax crypto in compliance with progressive taxation instead of general taxation. According to the article, income from trading cryptocurrencies is currently taxed at 55 percent. Imposing progressive taxation on crypto gains intends to reduce the tax to 20 percent — the same rate …
Trading / Feb. 15, 2019
India’s crypto tax provides little legal clarity for traders and exchanges
Earlier in February, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a tax proposal that would bring the relatively unregulated digital asset space under the purview of tax authorities. The proposal includes a 30% income tax on crypto returns and a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) by crypto exchanges on transactions above 10,000 Indian rupees ($133). The announcement came during the parliamentary budget session for 2022, and the government has already set April 1 as a deadline for crypto exchanges to comply with the new tax regulations. The introduction of the crypto tax was widely misreported as a form of legal …
Adoption / Feb. 17, 2022
Uphold becomes registered crypto-asset firm in UK post-FCA approval
A European subsidiary of United States-based crypto trading platform Uphold has received approval from the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). According to the FCA website, Uphold’s U.K. subsidiary Uphold Europe Limited gained regulatory approval on Feb. 17, 2022, joining the select list of 32 firms that have received FCA approval as a Registered Crypto Asset service provider, out of the 200 that applied. The approval signifies that the firm is in compliance with the U.K. Anti-Money Laundering and CounTerrorist Financing regulations. In order for crypto exchanges and service providers to offer their services to U.K.-based customers, they must register …
Regulation / Feb. 23, 2022