It’s the beginning of a new era for the Japanese based crypto exchange CoinCheck after the Kanto Financial Bureau, the country’s overseeing regulator granted it the license to operate as one.
Until the close of last year, the Crypto exchange giant had been operating on a “waiting license” despite speculations that the media and other stakeholders that the outfit would be licensed before the year comes to a close.
The cryptocurrency exchange outfit in a broadcast announced that effective January 11th 2019, the company will be officially registered as a cryptocurrency exchange and thus reserve all the rights of a licensed crypto exchange henceforth
Registration criterion and setbacks
For the firm to be registered by the Bureau it had to meet all the requirements recently set by the regulator which included but were not limited to proving they had adequate and functional internal controls that would ensure consumer interests are protected at all costs. The firm was however dealt a blow when unknown perpetrators successfully infiltrated their system and made away with over $530 million worth of cryptocurrency. The firm has however been able to cruise through the challenges to eventually acquire the license
“…CoinCheck has given a full explanation to the agency on the firm’s business descriptions, plans and basic philosophy on the risk management, as well as on the development of the firm’s governance and concrete internal controls and customer protection in mind” stated the report
It has not been a bed of roses for the crypto exchange firm given it was forced at some point to perform a complete overhaul of its structure which included a new ownership deal. The process saw Monex- a Japanese online brokerage firm successfully bid the entire firm for a price of $33.5 million
Reshuffled management and strategic play
CoinCheck was also forced to reshuffle the entire management in line with the conditions of the successful bidder Monex. The shuffle saw Toshihiko Katsuya of Monex replace the then President and Chief Operating Officer Yusuke Otsuka. CoinCheck’s then CEO Koichiro Wada also resigned in the process.
The firm went ahead to delist a number of privacy coins including Zcash, Monero and Dash in a strategic play that was perceived to enable the firm achieve and maintain compliance with the ‘Anti-Money Laundering Regulations’. In addition, the firm also deregistered the token of decentralized Oracle and prediction market protocol in an effort to distance itself with unlicensed gambling.
