E-commerce giant Rakuten acquires a license for a new cryptocurrency exchange

Japan’s top financial regulator has granted a license for e-commerce giant Rakuten to relaunch its cryptocurrency exchange.

National Financial Services Agency (FSA) announced on Monday, news broke that the new exchange, Rakuten Wallet, is now registered with the Kanto Local Finance Office as a virtual currency exchange service provider under the country’s Payment Services Act. Rakuten also confirmed this news in separate statement.

Rakuten Wallet is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rakuten and replaces an exchange called Everyone’s Bitcoin Inc., which it acquired last August for $2.4 million.

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On March 1, the company changed the name of the IPO to Rakuten Wallet. In its announcement, Rakuten also said it will discontinue the legacy service at the end of this month and that users will be able to sign up for the new Rakuten Wallet service starting in April.

The company also said that Everyone’s Bitcoin has operated as a “deemed” cryptocurrency exchange provider since its launch in March 2017, after submitting a license application at the time. Last spring, the company received a mandate from Kanto to streamline its operations and “officially restructured” its management system and modernized internal systems to license the rebooted unit.

At the same time, the FSA has issued a license to another exchange called DeCurret, which says it will provide spot trading in four cryptocurrencies in Japan from April 16. Opening new accounts starts on March 27. DeCurret’s shareholders include well-known companies such as MUFG Bank, Nomura Holdings, Internet Initiative Japan Inc., Daiwa Securities Group and Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company.

In January, the FSA also granted a license to Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck, which suffered a $530 million hack early last year. The two new approvals now bring the number of licensed cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan to 19, according to the FSA announcement.

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Rakuten photo via Shutterstock

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