Monex Group CEO Oki Matsumoto calls for stricter Japanese crypto exchange regulations, explaining that exchanges are very similar to banks in their nature.
23 April, AtoZ Markets – The CEO of one of the Japanese biggest online brokerages, Monex Group, has stated that he believes that Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges should abide by a stricter set of regulations.
Monex Group CEO Calls for Stricter Japanese Crypto Exchange Regulations
Oki Matsumoto has been quoted as saying:
"Japan's exchanges do both matching and custodial services - they're close to a bank. To someone in the financial industry like myself, it's common sense that regulations will get stricter."
Reportedly, Oki Matsumoto has been quite active in Japanese cryptocurrency market recently. Earlier this month, market participants were speculating that Monex Group is planning to acquire Coincheck, one of the active cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan. This crypto exchange has experienced a breach at the beginning of the current year, which has caused a loss of $530 million worth of XEM coins.
The $530M Coincheck cryptocurrency theft was one of the biggest cybersecurity hacks in history. The theft also points out the vulnerabilities in trading an asset that global authorities are trying to get hold of. The hack also highlights the wider risks for Japan as it looks into leveraging the fintech industry to boost the economic growth.
In fact, this theft has overcome the amount stolen in another well known Japanese cryptocurrency exchange hack, MtGox.
Catching up with the competition?
Monex Group has then confirmed the fact of the acquisition on the 6th of April. The firm has announced that it plans to buy 100 percent of Coincheck. The executive of Coincheck will be reportedly replaced with the Monex senior executive officer Toshihiko Katsuya.
At the same time, online reports have stated that Monex was looking into the possibility of initial public offering (IPO) of Coincheck shares. This would appear as the first ICO a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange.
Markets also expect that Monex Groups’ CEO might be catching up with the latest news that Yahoo Japan has invested into Japanese cryptocurrency exchange BitArg. It is known that the sum of this investment ranges between $18.6 million and $27 million.
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