Japan’s Financial Services Agency has recently asked Apple and Google to remove five unregistered cryptocurrency exchange apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The exchange apps that have been asked to be removed include Bybit, MEXC Global, LBank Exchange, KuCoin, and Bitget Limited as per Wu Blockchain.
Why is Japan doing this?
Japan has framed strict rules and regulations for the cryptocurrency exchanges to follow. According to the law, the exchange needs to be registered with the government or with the Japanese FSA before it starts its operation within the region. After careful review, warning letters were sent out to these exchanges in November 2024, but since there had been no action taken by these exchanges, the Japanese government decided to take the matter in their own hands and asked major tech companies to block access to these platforms.
What’s happening now?
Apple has removed the said apps from its store in Japan. For the users who have already downloaded the apps, they will still be able to use it but new downloads cannot be made anymore. Google on the other hand has not made comments on its action plan for this particular matter.
With increase in such scrutiny, one thing is clear that the governments are now paying attention to details and expect things to run according to the decided framework. Exchanges that do not follow the said guidelines might end up in trouble. For instance, Bybit had suspended its services in India as it was not registered with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). After paying a hefty penalty of $1 million the exchange registered itself with the Indian FIU and the exchange is now ready to begin trading in the region. The trading should resume shortly. Moreover, the exchange is also applying to be registered as an Indian Virtual Digital Asset Service Provider in the region.
What’s Next?
In order to stay in the business, the exchanges will now have to be alert and follow the local laws and comply to each one of them. The government is doing all that is necessary to protect its users and to keep markets fair.
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