Japan’s Largest Bitcoin Exchange Launches In Europe
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Tue, 01/23/2018
While bitcoin traders spend sleepless nights, drenched in sweat whether South Korea will unexpectedly ban the trading of crypto currencies on the country’s exchanges, sending the price of cryptos tumbling (it won’t any time soon as it just prohibited anonymous accounts while making real-name crypto trading mandatory, thereby confirming that no shutdown is imminent), what is really taking place is continued growth to meet rising global demand for crypto trading, and as the FT reports, BitFlyer, the Tokyo-based operator of one of the world’s largest bitcoin exchanges, is expanding in Europe after it was issued a Payment Institution license to operate in the European Union.
Yuzo Kano, the founder and CEO of bitFlyer, said in the press release,
“I am proud that we are now the most compliant virtual currency exchange in the world; this coveted regulatory status gives our customers, our company and the virtual currency industry as a whole a very positive future outlook.”
The exchange – which is one of the largest in the world with up to 30% of the global market and controls 80% of bitcoin trading in Japan – is launching its European service on Tuesday, after it received a license from Europe’s financial regulator. BitFlyer’s arrival in Europe comes at a time when larger exchanges seek to legitimize a marketplace where investors, to date, have been afforded few protections despite the risk of extreme price volatility, hacks and service outages.
The company was granted a payment institution licence from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, meaning it will have to carry out anti-money laundering checks when signing up customers, as a bank would. It also secured a banking partnership with an unnamed European bank.
“We’re delighted that one of the most successful Japanese start-ups chose Luxembourg as their EU platform,” Pierre Gramegna, the country’s finance minister said on Tuesday.
The Rest…HERE
