Monex Group Set to Open US Trading Platform

Monex Group, the online brokerage firm that bought embattled Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck few months ago, has announced plans to set up a trading platform in the US, this according to reports by Cointelegraph last Friday.

The U.S based outfit which will be called TradeStation Crypto. Inc. will be part of the securities brokerage company TradeStation that Monex bought seven years ago.

Monex CEO Oki Matsumoto also revealed that Coincheck will be restarting operations in August 2018. According to Cointelegraph, Monex bought the hacked Japanese crypto exchange three months ago for $33 million.

The CEO had predicted in previous interviews that his company was going to re-launch the Coincheck exchange in June, but Japan’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), the country’s financial regulator, had not issued the company with the necessary licenses to that effect, this according to Cointelegraph.

Matsumoto shared his optimism with the media recently regarding licensing from the FSA explaining that his company has upgraded its cyber security and put in place the right team necessary for a re-launch of the Coincheck exchange.

Coincheck had lost $534 million in what is to date the biggest cryptocurrency hack ever.

Coincheck’s new owners have tried to restore confidence in the exchange. Top executives of Monex announced two months ago that they were removing four anonymity-driven altcoins from the exchange while also announcing plans to expand into the U.S crypto market.

Analysts have viewed the two recent maneuvers as a way to restore confidence in the exchange, something it had seen in short supply lately.

In one of the interviews that Matsumoto granted to Bloomberg during the time, the Monex CEO told the financial news outlet that “Japan may seem like its one step ahead in crypto, but in terms of deciding what’s a security or a token and attracting institutional investors, the U.S. and Europe are moving ahead.”