The crypto exchange Kraken said on Wednesday it will shut down its operations in Japan next month.
The US-based group blamed current market conditions in the country and the weak global crypto market.
Kraken will deregister from the Financial Services Agency (JFSA) as of January 31, by which time clients would have to withdraw their fiat and crypto holdings, it said in a statement.
Kraken said that it is fully funded to ensure that all affected clients could withdraw their assets in a timely manner.
Last month, Kraken said it would reduce its workforce by 30%, or about 1,100 employees, as tough market conditions had crippled demand for digital assets.
Crypto has suffered a horror year with Bitcoin, the pre-eminent currency, losing 60% of its value in 2022, while the wider crypto market has shrunk by $1.4 trillion.
The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire, plus the supposed ‘stablecoins’ terraUSD and Luna set up by Korean Do Kwon, who is still being sought by Interpol, were the two key elements in what has been a truly tumultuous year.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
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Interpol Seeks Arrest of Crypto Developer Do Kwon – TechCrunch
