Topic: Korean Crypto Giant Bithumb Eyes Japan and Thailand for Expansion (Read 84 times)

Korean Crypto Giant Bithumb Eyes Japan and Thailand for Expansion

South Korean exchange Bithumb has announced that it will open new offices in Japan and Thailand. According to local news outlet ZDNet, Bithumb is awaiting the approval of Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) and Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Bithumb explained that it chose Thailand because the e-commerce and fin-tech industry is extremely active in the country. Moreover, Thai regulators understand and welcome cryptocurrencies in order to promote “smart city business” – not only did the SEC publicly accept ICOs as the perfect way to support startups but also planned to regulate five of them last month. As a result of the crypto-friendly environment, Bithumb might start its operations in Thailand as early as October 2018.

Bithumb is banking that it can convince regulators in Japan to approve its cryptocurrency exchange application, even though its South Korea-based platform was hacked earlier this year
Japan, on the other hand, has been tightening its rules for crypto-related companies. In January 2018, Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck was hacked; the criminals were able to steal the money since funds were kept in a hot wallet. After a few months, Japanese cryptocurrency Monacoin also suffered a network attack by a miner. Thus, the FSA started cracking down on crypto exchanges that didn’t follow the rules set by the organization by issuing business improvement orders. Last month, an exchange was officially rejected by the FSA for not establishing a proper system.

However, Bithumb is optimistic that its application will be accepted and the new office will commence its service in Japan in February 2019. In fact, the exchange plans to expand its business further and is looking for new global partners.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/korean-crypto-giant-bithumb-eyes-japan-and-thailand-for-expansion/