SBI Holdings has made its intention to enter the cryptocurrency industry pretty clear in the past twelve months. The group intended to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in late 2017, but those plans were postponed in the end. It now seems the company has updated its original plans, as the launch of their exchange will still be going ahead in the coming months.
SBI Holdings Wants in on the Cryptocurrency Action
Japan has proven to be a very open-minded country when it comes to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It is also one of the few countries in the world where Bitcoin is considered to be a legal form of money. As such, the ecosystem can genuinely thrive in that part of the world without risking government intervention unless things get really dicey.
Major companies in Japan have been looking to enter the cryptocurrency space. SBI Holdings made their intentions quite clear some time ago, but it seems their initial plans had to be postponed for a while. More specifically, SBI Holdings initially planned to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in the autumn of 2017. That time frame had to be adjusted, mainly because of the hack of the Coincheck exchange.
Additionally, SBI Holdings ran into some minor issues with their business alliance agreement formed with China’s Huobi Group. Two such setbacks in quick succession forced the company to delay the launch of the exchange, but the plan was never scrapped entirely. Instead, SBI Holdings went through the process of obtaining a license to operate a cryptocurrency exchange in Japan, despite not having a working project.
According to new information shared by the company late last week, the cryptocurrency exchange is now set to launch this summer. No specific date has been announced as of yet. Considering that this platform was built from the ground up, it will be interesting to see what SBI Holdings’ new venture will look like. They have been offering a limited version of the platform to a select few customers since late January to properly test the infrastructure and possibilities.
At this time, it remains unclear which cryptocurrencies will be supported exactly. The most popular currencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP, would make a lot of sense in this regard. Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin are also strong contenders. It seems all supported currencies will have a Japanese yen trading market, yet it remains to be seen if this will apply to all currencies from day one. There are still a fair few unknown aspects to contend with, yet the impending launch is something to look forward to.
There’s no lack of ambition when it comes to SBI Holdings’ cryptocurrency venture. The firm is utterly confident that their trading platform will become Japan’s largest exchange in very short order, and may even bring competition to some of the world’s leading platforms. Living up to those expectations may prove a lot more difficult than the group anticipates, though, as this is a cutthroat business.
