Crypto exchange Coinbase to halt Japan operations

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Jan 18 (Reuters) — Coin­base Glob­al Inc (COIN.O) is halt­ing its oper­a­tions in Japan due to volatile mar­ket con­di­tions, the cryp­tocur­ren­cy exchange said on Wednes­day, days after it announced job cuts amid wan­ing demand for dig­i­tal assets.

The move comes just weeks after rival exchange Krak­en said it was ceas­ing its busi­ness in the country.

“Japan is unlike­ly a mate­r­i­al con­trib­u­tor to Coin­base rev­enue,” Oppen­heimer ana­lyst Owen Lau said, adding the com­pa­ny has been exam­in­ing the mar­ket for some time but just got the license from the Japan­ese reg­u­la­tor a year and a half ago.

The cryp­tocur­ren­cy mar­ket is going through tur­bu­lent times as the plung­ing val­ue of dig­i­tal assets amid ris­ing inter­est rates and the col­lapse of some of its biggest play­ers, includ­ing FTX, have shak­en the faith of investors in what was seen as the next big thing in the world of finance.

Coin­base, Crypto.com and Huo­bi have all announced plans to lay off about 20% of their respec­tive staff, while a source told Reuters ear­li­er this month that Gen­e­sis, too, had cut jobs, equat­ing to 30% of its workforce.

All Coin­base Japan cus­tomers will have until Feb. 16 to with­draw their fiat and cryp­to hold­ings, the com­pa­ny said in a blog post.

The com­pa­ny’s shares shed about 86% of their val­ue last year, amid a bru­tal sell­off in cryp­tocur­ren­cies rang­ing from bit­coin to doge­coin that wiped out more than a tril­lion dol­lars from the sector.

Report­ing by Jyoti Narayan and Manya Sai­ni in Ben­galu­ru; Edit­ing by Savio D’Souza, Janane Venka­tra­man and Anil D’Silva

Our Stan­dards: The Thom­son Reuters Trust Principles.

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