Huobi Pro Exchange Plans to Stop Crypto Trading in Japan

Starting from next month, cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Pro will stop providing trading services to investors residing in Japan.

The exchange released the information in an email directed to investors in Japan on Wednesday, stating it will take away the Japanese option from its website and suspend trading services from July 2, according to a news report from Coinpost.

In a reply to a CoinDesk query, Huobi Pro – presently the third biggest exchange in the globe by 24-hour trading volume – confirmed the information, but has yet to present more information for instance the strategy for users’ resource withdrawals.

As proposed in the Coinpost report, Huobi Pro opted to take away Japan-based services due to the fact it is not signed up with the Financial Services Agency (FSA), Japan’s financial watchdog, as required within a money transaction law launched in 2016. It is not at the moment certain if the exchange has been approached by the FSA about the issue.

At the beginning of this year, Huobi Pro pointed out it was joining up SBI Virtual Currency – the certified exchange supported by Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings – to release a licensed platform in Japan. Nevertheless, the approach was remarkably abandoned by SBI Virtual Currency back in March.

According to web traffic tracking site Alexa, at the moment 13.3 percent of the site visitors on Huobi Pro originate from Japan. The firm denied revealing to CoinDesk when asked if it is thinking about submitting an enrollment application with the FSA as a next step.

In March, Binance, at the moment the second biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, were remarkably warned by the FSA stating that, as a foreign organization, it was providing trading services to Japanese occupants without a permit. Binance highlighted back then that its legal team was in dialogue with the agency.