US-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has decided to shut down its operations in Japan due to difficult market conditions in the country and the weak global cryptocurrency market. The company feels that the current challenges do not justify the resources needed to grow its business in Japan. Kraken is one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, processing $434.1 million in trading volumes per day, according to CoinMarketCap data.
The company will be deregistered from the Japan Financial Services Agency on January 31, 2023 and will stop offering services to its customers in Japan through its subsidiary Payward Asia. Kraken will remove deposit functionality on its platform on January 9, 2023. However, Kraken users in Japan will have until the end of next month to withdraw their fiat and crypto holdings, with the option to transfer crypto to another wallet or collect. and transfer Japanese yen to a domestic bank account.
This is the second time Kraken has left the Japanese market. The company had previously exited Japan in 2018, blaming the rising costs of doing business in the country. The company relaunched its operations in 2020 after obtaining regulatory approval.
Kraken recently announced that it intends to lay off 1,100 employees or nearly a third of its workforce, as the FTX fiasco weakened crypto markets. The crypto market has taken a hit this year as rising interest rates have steered investors away from risky assets. The FTX bankruptcy and related scandal have further affected investor confidence. bitcoin (USD-BTC), the world's largest token, is down more than 64% year-to-date.
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