Coincheck comes back to life

Nearly nine months after the largest hack in the history of the crypto industry, Coincheck has opened new user registrations and resumed trading on a limited basis.

The Tokyo-based cryptocurrency trading platform made an announcement yesterday that Japanese residents who have passed an extended KYC verification can immediately open new accounts on Coincheck and trade four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum Classic (ETC). Until this time, Coincheck clients could only withdraw funds in yen and sell previously credited assets from their balance; all other transactions remained unavailable.

In the near future, under the new leadership of the public financial services company Monex Group, the platform intends to expand trading with five more altcoins: ETH, XRP, NEM XEM, LSK and FCT. The confidentiality-limited assets monero, Zcash and DASH, removed from the listing in the summer, are not planned for sale, apparently due to regulatory pressure. Likewise, Augur, the platform's own resource, remains unlisted on the exchange.

In January, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) blamed Coincheck, whose cryptocurrency license was pending at at the time of the hack, for its lax measures security.

Recognizing that regulators were unlikely to license Coincheck's cryptocurrency operations under the same governance structure that oversaw the hack in January, the founders sold their stake to Monex Group in April for $33.5 million, far below the multimillion-dollar deals signed by others major exchanges in early 2018.

So far, Coincheck has still not received a crypto trading license, although Monex claims that it has taken into account all of the FSA's concerns outlined in the letter of recommendation and has committed to act in full compliance with the Commission's regulations. Monex, in its latest quarterly earnings report, noted:

Coincheck has developed sophisticated internal controls, including a highly robust security management system. Moving forward, Coincheck will develop as a high-tech company with advanced security controls and know-how to ensure profitability that matches its true value..

Monex Group believes that Coincheck, despite its troubled past, can play a central role in the Japanese cryptocurrency market and aims to position itself as a “new financial conglomerate.” In particular, Monex suggested that Coincheck could one day offer the services of a “crypto-asset bank”, and, using blockchain technology, become an alternative to traditional payment cards.