Japan Inspects its 32 Cryptocurrency Exchanges

On Friday, Japan's financial regulatory body, Financial Services Agency (FSA) announced that it will be inspecting 32 cryptocurrency exchanges operating in its country. 16 of the agencies are functioning without a license.

The 16 exchanges approved by the FSA last year were Money Partners, Quoine, Bitflyer, Bit Bank, SBI Virtual Currencies, GMO Coin, Bittrade, Btcbox, Bitpoint, Fisco Virtual Currency, Zaif, Tokyo Bitcoin Exchange, Bit Arg Exchange Tokyo, FTT Corporation, Xtheta Corporation and Bitocean.

The ones that do not have a license are however classified as "deemed virtual currency exchange traders". Coincheck is one such agency that had reported the loss of NEM cryptocurrency worth $530 million last week.

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The other 15 include Minnano Bitcoin, Payward Japan, Lemuria Bitcoin Exchange (Bitcrements), Campfire Corporation, Tokyo Gateway, Lastroots Corporation, Debit, Eternal Link, FSHO Corporation, Kirin Corporation, Bit Station, Blue Dream Japan, Mr. Exchange, Bmex Corporation, and Bitexpress Corporation.

The Japanese government had not revealed the names of these 16 unlicensed exchanges before Friday.

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