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- Coinbase has announced it will be exiting the Japanese market citing market conditions.
- The exchange’s decision is slightly affecting its share price but Bitcoin remains unfazed.
American multinational cryptocurrency trading platform, Coinbase Global Inc has announced its exit from the Japanese market. The company announced this move on Wednesday, citing the unpleasant market conditions as the reason for the exit.
As detailed by Coinbase, its customers in Japan will be able to withdraw their funds without hassles from now until February 16th, and the withdrawals can be made either in crypto to an external wallet or via fiat currency. The trading platform noted that users who refuse to withdraw their funds by the stated date will have to liaise with Japan’s Legal Affairs Bureau – the country’s civil administrative office.
“All Coinbase Japan customers will have until February 16th, 2023 JST to withdraw their fiat and crypto holdings from Coinbase. Customers can choose to withdraw their crypto holdings to any other Virtual Assets Service Provider, Coinbase Wallet, or any other self-hosted wallet of their choice. Alternatively, customers can choose to liquidate their portfolio and withdraw their JPY to a domestic bank account,” the exchange said in its announcement.
Coinbase said deposits for fiat currencies will be deactivated on January 20th but reassured that it is very much committed to ensuring all of its users are properly cared for during this transition period. The exchange said all digital currencies that are not withdrawn by February 16 will be converted to fiat for easy accessibility by the Japanese Legal Affairs Bureau.
Impact of Coinbase Japanese exit on COIN and Bitcoin
At the time of writing, the exit of Coinbase, listed on the Nasdaq-listed trading platform is having no impact on the price of Bitcoin (BTC) which is up by 0.74% to $21,387.71 in the past 24 hours according to data from Market Cap. The news has fueled no significant shift in the price of the digital currency which has recorded a $24.4 billion trading volume over the past 24 hours.
The same cannot be said of Coinbase stock, trading with the ticker symbol “COIN.” While COIN joined other crypto-related stocks, amidst its growing fundamentals, to print an impressive 8.2% upshoot after the close of trading on Tuesday, its price has now slipped by 0.35% in the Pre-Market to $53.95.
The exit of Coinbase from the Japanese will be profiled by investors as a likely toughening business environment for the firm. In the course of the crypto winter which came in full-blown in early 2022, Coinbase has been reacting to the market dynamics in different ways. The trading platform has laid off as many as 20% of its workforce, or 2110 staffers to date.
While Coinbase has a growing presence in different regions including the European Union (EU) and South America, leaving Japan might set its global advancement back by a little mile. The company pursued licensing in the country for close to years before it finally entered into a partnership with one of the country’s top financial firms Mitsubishi UFJ in 2021.
The announcement did not highlight what the working relationship with Mitsubishi UFJ will look like moving forward.
