The United States, Japan and South Korea are the world’s biggest fans of cryptocurrency exchanges, new research from software firm DataLight reported April 29. After investigating the origin of traders who use well-known exchanges, DataLight — which continues to publish various insights into the industry — said that the U.S. has the highest share of visits, more than triple the next runner up. The firm analyzed monthly visits to 100 platforms, which yielded around 22.2 million from U.S.-based users. Second was Japan with 6.1 million visits, while South Korea had 5.7 million. The United Kingdom and Russia took fourth and …

Top stories this week Bitfinex Allegedly Covers $850 Million Loss With Tether Funds The New York attorney general’s office alleged this week that crypto exchange Bitfinex lost $850 million and subsequently used funds from affiliated stablecoin operator Tether to secretly cover the shortfall. The attorney general’s office has obtained a court filing that alleged that Bitfinex’s operator, Tether Limited and its associated entities were in violation of New York law with activities that may have defrauded New York-based crypto investors. Bitfinex has already publicly renounced the accusations, repeating in a blog post that both its platform and Tether are financially …

New Japanese crypto exchange SBI Virtual Currencies (SBIVC) achieved profitability in the first year of its launch, Cointelegraph Japan reports on April 26. SBIVC exchange, launched by Tokyo-based financial services giant SBI Holdings, reportedly recorded a profit before tax of almost 360 million Japanese yen ($3.2 million) for the full fiscal year from April 2018 to March 31, 2019. SBI also made a number of major announcements in its new financial report. As such, SBI revealed that it is considering the launch of a security token offering (STO) later this year, adding that the firm is awaiting the revision of …

Disclaimer. This article has been updated to include comments from Yoshitaka Kitao during the financial results conference call. Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO and representative director of Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings, has been appointed as an executive of Ripple Labs Inc., Cointelegraph Japan reports on April 26. As previously reported, SBI Holdings is an active partner of Ripple via their joint venture, “SBI Ripple Asia,” which was established to promote the use of XRP in Asian financial markets back in 2016. SBI’s official announcement states that Kitao’s appointment to his new executive role at Ripple Labs will aim to “further …

The trustee of now-defunct Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox has extended the deadline for submission of rehabilitation plans, according to an official announcement published on the company’s website on April 25. Per the announcement, the exchange’s Rehabilitation Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi filed a motion in a bid to extend the submission deadline of a rehabilitation plan at the Tokyo District Court. On April 24, 2019, the court released an order to extend the deadline to October 28, 2019. The announcement reads: “A large amount of rehabilitation claims that the Rehabilitation Trustee fully or partially disapproved remains undetermined for being subject to …

Japanese online broker Monex Group is planning to start trading in their United States cryptocurrency exchange in July, CEO Oki Matsumoto said on April 25, according to Cointelegraph Japan. The spin-off, currently dubbed TradeStation Crypto, would serve semi-professional traders and seeks to shore up profitability for Monex’s cryptocurrency offerings. Reuters also noted today that Monex had a loss of over $15 million on its crypto operations in 2018. The figure, part of financial performance data released this week, stems from the loss-making Coincheck exchange that Monex acquired last April. Despite restructuring the platform and returning it to full regulated service, …

Major Japanese bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), will leverage R3’s Marco Polo blockchain network for trade finance, local cryptocurrency news outlet CoinDesk Japan reported on April 25. SMBC, which is Japan’s third-largest bank by assets, plans to roll out blockchain services in the second half of 2019. Other currency members of Marco Polo, which is powered by R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain platform, include banks such as BNP Paribas and ING. The product successfully conducted its first trade finance operations in March, an operation involving two German firms and local bank Commerzbank. “Trade finance […] is very complicated, and many …

Japan’s Minister of Finance and deputy prime minister Taro Aso has urged reporters to stop using the term virtual currencies and switch to the newly-proposed legal name crypto assets. Aso — who also serves as the country’s Minister of State for Financial Services — made his remarks during a crypto-focused question and answer session at a press conference following a government cabinet meeting. The full transcript of the Q&A from March 26 was published by Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) on April 26, alongside a provisional English translation. As Cointelegraph Japan reports today, the minister’s insistence on the use of …

‘Smart card’ crypto wallet manufacturer Tangem has received a $15 million investment from major Japanese financial services firm SBI Group, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reports on April 24. The new investment will purportedly allow Tangem to relocate its headquarters to the ‘Crypto Valley’ of Zug, Switzerland. From Zug, Tangem want to develop new use cases for its physical smart cards that function like the hardware wallet version of banknotes. Each of these smart cards carries a fixed amount of cryptocurrency. The company intends for these smart cards to be used for daily crypto payments. Andrey Kurennykh, Tangem’s CEO said: “It is …

Telecoms giant NTT Corporation’s Thai subsidiary plans to launch a major innovation lab focused on blockchain, artificial intelligence and internet of things technology. Thai English-language newspaper the Bangkok Post reported on the development on April 23. NTT Communications (NTT Com) Thailand is the local operating unit of NTT Com Group, a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation — Japan’s largest telecoms firm and the world’s third-largest telecoms firm by revenue. According to the Bangkok Post, the new lab is slated for launch in the second quarter of 2019, and comes in addition to NTT Com Thailand’s existing 500 …

Japanese billionaire and founder of multinational conglomerate SoftBank Group, Masayoshi Son, reportedly lost over $130 million with his bitcoin (BTC) investment, the Wall Street Journal reports on April 23. Per the report, people familiar with the matter claim that Son made the investment at the recommendation of Peter Briger, the co-chairman of asset management company Fortress Investment Group. Fortress Investment reportedly bought bitcoin in 2013; when SoftBank bought Fortress in February 2017, its holdings (including crypto) were worth more than $150 million. However, Son reportedly invested in the coin when it was near its $20,000 all-time-high in late 2017, and …

Japan’s financial regulator has reportedly investigated two domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to check consumer protection and legal compliance, Cointelegraph Japan reported on April 23. According to anonymous source originally speaking to Reuters, the investigation by the Financial Services Agency (FSA) on April 17 involved trading platforms Fisco and Huobi Japan, the local off-shoot of Chinese exchange Huobi. Fisco Digital Asset Group (FDAG) has been working with Tech Bureau Inc., the operator of the previously hacked Zaif exchange, to officially transfer the business to the former group. Both the Fisco and Huobi Japan platforms had previously undergone restructuring of senior management, with …