Crypto exchange Kraken leaves the land of the rising sun

The high cost of doing business in Japan and regulatory pressure are forcing the veteran digital platform, the American crypto exchange Kraken, to leave this market after 4 years of successful operation.

It is known that a holy place is never empty, and Kraken has probably already looked at a more loyal jurisdiction. We won’t be surprised if this turns out to be Malta, where Binance and OKEx

Kraken received permission from regulators to operate without a license. However, despite this, this cryptocurrency platform was never able to gain popularity among Japanese residents. As of April 17, the trading volume for the BTC/JPY pair is only 165.298 US dollars. At the same time, the volume for the BTC/USD pair is equal to $36 million.

As the publication notes, the Kraken exchange began operating in Japan in October 2014. According to Coinmarketcap, Kraken ranks 10th on the list of exchanges in terms of trading volume ($179.8 million in the last 24 hours).

At the end of March, the Kraken exchange stopped accepting US dollars, euros and British pounds through the SWIFT interbank transfer system. Restrictions also affected the acceptance of deposits in Japanese yen due to the closure of accounts in the Japanese bank SMBC.

Recall that after the Coincheck hack in Japan, the requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country were significantly tightened. At the same time, representatives of the American exchange do not exclude the possibility that Kraken may return in the future if the situation changes for the better. In the meantime, according to preliminary information, the exchange will stop serving residents of the country by the end of June, Bloomberg reports.

According to https://bitcoinist.com