Japanese prosecutors have reportedly dropped their appeal to the acquittal of former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles, The Mainichi reports on March 29. On March 15, the CEO of the now defunct Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange was acquitted of charges of embezzlement, but was found guilty of tampering with financial records. According to The Mainichi, prosecutors had initially sought to appeal the acquittal on embezzlement charges, but subsequently decided to let the decision stand. Karpeles was reportedly accused of taking 341 million yen ($3 million) of customers’ money in Mt. Gox accounts and spending it on a software developer and …

Japanese financial regulators approved a second cryptocurrency exchange to begin operations this week, a press release from local exchange DeCurret, the applicant, confirmed on March 25. DeCurret, which joins an offering from e-commerce giant Rakuten in launching on the domestic market, will begin trading on April 16. Together with Rakuten Wallet, previously known as Everybody’s Bitcoin, next month will mark the debut of new-to-market Japanese exchanges approved under new licensing laws. “With the concept of ‘connecting and exchanging all values and making transactions simple,’ DeCurret aims to become ‘a major financial servicer for digital currency’ that sets standard [sic] for …

A Japanese court has acquitted a man who was accused of illicitly mining cryptocurrency by using the computing power of visitors to his website, Japan Today reported on March 27. The Yokohama District Court reportedly ordered to acquit a 31-year-old website designer, who allegedly ran Coinhive on his website to mine digital currency. The program allows the user to take advantage of website visitors’ spare computing power to mine cryptocurrencies — a practice known as cryptojacking. The accused reportedly stated that the program could not be considered a virus. Presiding Judge Toshihiro Homma reportedly said that the man’s actions "[do] …

The Japanese broker that acquired the hacked cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck in April 2018 has announced major changes in its management structure. The news was revealed in a press release published on March 27. The current representative executive officer and president of Monex group, Oki Matsumoto, will now also be the representative director and chairman of Monex, as well as chairman of Coincheck. Per the announcement, within Monex, “diverse employees will be aggressively promoted to managerial positions.” The press release also reveals that three Coincheck executive directors will also serve as executive directors of Monex to enhance cooperation between group companies. …

Japanese financial regulators have reportedly introduced new regulations for cryptocurrency margin trading, local news agency Nikkei reported on March 18. The Cabinet of Japan, the executive branch of the country’s government, has reportedly approved draft amendments to Japan’s financial instruments and payment services laws, limiting leverage in cryptocurrency margin trading at two to four times the initial deposit. Margin trading is the use of borrowed funds from a broker to trade a financial asset, thus forming a collateral for the loan. The new rules — which are reportedly et to come into force in April 2020 — will require cryptocurrency …

Mark Karpeles — the former CEO of the now-defunct Bitcoin (BTC) exchange Mt. Gox — has received a suspended jail sentence after being found guilty of tampering with financial records. The news was reported by Bloomberg on March 15. The Tokyo District Court has reportedly found Karpeles guilty of mixing his personal finances with those of the exchange in order to conceal the platform’s losses to hackers. He received a two and a half years jail sentence, which he will not have to serve unless he commits another offence within four years. The court however acquitted Karpeles of alleged embezzlement …

An 18-year-old hacker was referred to prosecutors in the Japanese city of Utsunomiya for stealing cryptocurrency, local news outlet Japan Today reported on March 14. The cybercriminal allegedly hacked Monappy, a digital wallet which can be installed on a smartphone, and stole 15 million yen ($134,196) of cryptocurrency between Aug. 14 and Sept. 1 of last year. The hack reportedly affected more than 7,700 users. The hacker reportedly used the Tor software that enables users to anonymize web traffic. However, the police identified the hacker by analyzing the communication records stored on the website’s server. According to Japan Today, the …

The crypto unit of South Korea’s largest internet conglomerate Kakao Corp will repeat its initial coin offering (ICO) after netting $90 million from investors, Bloomberg reported on Mar. 11. Klaytn, the blockchain platform which is the responsibility of spin-off firm Ground X, will now seek to raise another $90 million as soon as this week. In December 2018, Kakao had first announced that it was planning to raise around $300 million through Ground X to develop its own token. According to Jason Han, CEO of Ground X, IDG Capital, Cresendo Equity Partners and Translink Capital were some of the venture …

In order to promote domestic blockchain and cryptocurrency-related businesses, the Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association (JCBA) has published its "Recommendations on New ICO Regulation" on Friday, March 8. The recommendations on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) regulations issued by the JCBA — a local industry trade group — focus on three main topics: the expansion of cryptocurrency in Japanese domestic exchanges, as well as the definitions of and regulations for utility tokens and security tokens. The proposed regulations suggest distinguishing between security and utility tokens and making the former subject to the Financial Commodity Exchange Act. As the announcement stresses, JCBA started …

United States smart contract security company Quantstamp has announced its expansion to Japan following an investment from local financial giant Nomura Holdings. The news was revealed in a press release from Quantstamp published on March 6. According to the announcement, the U.S. firm has received a “significant investment” from Nomura, which provides investment, financing and related services to individual, institutional and government customers. Venture company Digital Garage, which invests in successful internet startups across the world, reportedly also contributed to the round. Information that the corporate funding round was led by Nomura also appeared on Crunchbase on March 6. The …

In Japan, the number of hacked Internet of Things (IoT) devices and cryptocurrency networks nearly doubled in 2018 when compared to the previous year. English-language local media Asahi reported on March 7. Per the report, the Japanese Police Agency data shows that an average of 2,752.8 intrusions per sensor per day were detected last year, up 45 percent from the previous year. Furthermore, the data also reportedly shows that almost all of the attacks came from overseas. According to the article, if one considers only cryptocurrency networks and IoT devices, the data shows an average of 1,702.8 intrusions per sensor …

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