Coincheck crypto exchange announces Japan’s first ever IEO

Coincheck’s goal of conducting the first-ever initial exchange offering in Japan is moving closer to becoming a reality.

According to a release issued on Monday, the Japanese crypto exchange announced that the Hashpalette (HPT) initial exchange offering will take place in the summer. IEOs are a modified form of initial coin offering, where a crypto exchange platform acts as an intermediary between token issuers and investors.

Coincheck partnered with Hashpalette back in August 2020, with plans for HPT to become the first IEO-issued utility token in the Japanese crypto market. At the time, the plan was coming on the heels of newly passed cryptocurrency laws in Japan, creating a clear-cut legal framework for token sale events among other market segments.

IEOs have also been the subject of regulatory uncertainty, especially concerning whether IEO tokens qualify as securities.

For Coincheck, the goal of conducting Japan’s maiden IEO is part of the efforts to improve its crypto business. Back in January 2018, Coincheck suffered one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange hacks in history, with about $534 million in NEM (XEM) tokens stolen from the platform.

Hashpalette is a cross-blockchain, nonfungible token platform based in Japan that focuses on digital content, such as manga, music and sports, among others. The NFT platform supports popular blockchain networks, such as Ether, Neo and Ontology.

During its initial IEO announcement back in August 2020, Hashpalette revealed that the proceeds from the token sale would be used to develop its Palette blockchain platform for more robust digital content distribution.

Apart from Hashpalette, Coincheck has also been making other significant inroads into the NFT space. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Japanese exchange announced plans to list NFTs by fan token giants Chiliz on its marketplace.

The Coincheck marketplace also lists other popular NFTs, including CryptoKitties.