The cryptocurrency situation in Japan is changing rather quickly these days. Coincheck, one of the country’s bigger trading platforms, has made it clear they are not too keen on privacy-oriented currencies. As such, they have announced the removal of Dash, Monero, and Zcash trading. It seems the company is also getting rid of Augur’s REP token.
An Interesting Decision by Coincheck
When Coincheck made it clear the company would remove all privacy and anonymity-oriented cryptocurrencies from its platform, the community wasn’t too thrilled. The removal is the direct result of an order issued by the Japanese government, which doesn’t like currencies such as Dash and Monero. The fact that the exchange is complying without giving it a second thought also paints an interesting picture.
Even so, Coincheck will delist Monero, Dash, and Zcash by the end of June. It will be interesting to see if other trading platforms follow its lead. So far, that doesn’t appear to have been the case, as most trading platforms are intent on not making such decisions until the last possible moment. This is not good news for the affected currencies, as Japan is a major market in the global cryptocurrency industry.
One could argue that Coincheck has little choice in the matter. Considering that the Japanese FSA has advised exchanges to get rid of these coins specifically, Coincheck will need to comply. Additionally, the trading platform has seen its fair share of adversity this year already, having lost $530 million worth of XEM through a hack before being acquired by Monex a few weeks ago.
What is rather surprising is that Coincheck is not intent on just delisting these three currencies. It now seems Augur’s REP token will also be removed from the platform. Augur is a decentralized prediction market which, according to the exchange, has an unhealthy association with unlicensed gambling. That’s a rather vague statement, albeit one that’s not entirely incorrect.
With Monex now in charge of this prominent trading platform, changes like these are to be expected. The company is in the process of getting an official license to operate as of next month, which means they will need to step up their AML, KYC, and CTF measures in a significant manner. Privacy and anonymity currencies pose a direct threat in this regard and are therefore being eliminated.
Whether or not this development will have a negative impact on all these cryptocurrencies remains to be determined. So far, it seems these changes have not spooked the markets in the slightest, but there is still a lot of time remaining until trading is shut down. It is also worth noting that none of the licensed exchanges in Japan support any of these four currencies as far as their FSA applications are concerned.
