Japan’s FSA warning to Bybit: Why now?

Japan has been among the few countries keeping an open mind towards cryptocurrencies and their use-cases. However, cryptos businesses will need to comply with the law of different countries. As per a recent update, Japan’s Financial Services Agency [FSA] has issued a warning to Bybit, a crypto exchange for operating without registration.

The financial watchdog stated that the residents of the country were using Bybit. The memo also stated that the exchange, headquartered in Singapore, was not complying with the country’s laws. Although crypto and related business have been prevalent in Japan for a while now, this was the first time FSA issued a warning like this to a crypto exchange in the past three years. In 2018, the regulators had warned Binance over unregistered operations, but the exchange has remained operational within the country.

Bybit has been facing a rough time in the crypto market following this warning. The exchange was also called out by the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority [FCA] to cease operations in the country as the regulatory body announced a ban on crypto derivatives. In China, Bybit announced that it would close all accounts registered using Chine phone numbers by 15th June. This decision came to light after a new crackdown on crypto trading and mining.

Lately, many countries have been taking note of crypto businesses and issued warnings. Japan’s first such warning may be worrisome, but the crypto traders in the country are not new to such moves by the government. The exchange still was among the top Bitcoin futures exchanges and has been adding new products to its list. The most recent addition will include the Ether futures contract even as the crypto space goes through a period of high volatility.