Huobi Japan Raises $4.6M From FPG to Expand Crypto Trading Business

Published at: Oct. 25, 2019

Licensed crypto exchange Huobi Japan has raised 5 million yen ($4.6 million) from Financial Products Group (FPG), a financial instruments business operator.

The development was revealed in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 25.

Future cooperation on digitized securities

Huobi Japan is a wholly-owned subsidiary of major Singapore-based crypto exchange Huobi, which serves traders across over 130 countries. 

The platform launched this January as a fully compliant entity after a merger with BitTrade — one of only 16 crypto exchanges at the time to have secured a license under the aegis of Japan’s national financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA). 

According to today’s announcement, FPG and Huobi Japan will jointly focus on providing support for new financial assets and payment methods.

In addition, FPG Group says it anticipates a possible future collaboration with Huobi Japan to further the digitization of Japan’s securities market by combining its expertise as a financial instruments business operator with Huobi’s blockchain technology.

Japan’s exchange regulatory regime

A license has been mandatory for all crypto exchanges operating within Japan since the amendment of the country’s Payment Services Act back in April 2017. The FSA evolved increasingly strict requirements for license applicants in the wake of a major $532 million hack in January 2018 of local exchange Coincheck.

Coincheck went on to secure an FSA license in January of this year. Other regulator-approved exchanges include LVC Corporation — the digital asset- and blockchain-focused arm of Japanese messaging giant LINE — which was granted a license this September.

Founded in China in 2013, Huobi Group has been headquartered in Singapore since Beijing’s crackdown on domestic crypto-fiat exchanges in September 2017. 

This August, New York-based blockchain infrastructure firm Elementus published research alleging that almost 50% of the total number of PlusToken withdrawals — an alleged crypto Ponzi scheme — were processed via the flagship Huobi platform.

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