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US-based crypto exchange Kraken has decided to shut down its operations in Japan due to difficult market conditions in the country and weakness in the global crypto market. The company believes that the current challenges do not justify the resources needed to expand its business in Japan. Kraken is one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, processing $434.1 million in daily trading volumes, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The company will withdraw from the Japan Financial Services Agency on January 31, 2023 and stop offering services to its customers in Japan through its subsidiary Payward Asia. Kraken will be removing deposit functionality from its platform on January 9, 2023. However, Kraken users in Japan will have time until the end of next month to withdraw their fiat and crypto holdings, with the option to transfer crypto to another wallet or cash in and transfer Japanese yen to a domestic bank account.
This is the second time that Kraken has left the Japanese market. The company previously left Japan in 2018, blaming the rising costs of doing business in the country. The company restarted operations in 2020 after gaining regulatory approval.
Kraken recently announced plans to lay off 1,100 employees, almost a third of its workforce, as the FTX fiasco weakened crypto markets. The crypto market has taken a beating this year as rising interest rates have driven investors away from risky assets. The FTX bankruptcy and related scandal further impacted investor sentiment. Bitcoin (BTC-USD), the largest token in the world, is down more than 64% since the start of the year.
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