Singaporean Entrepreneur Acquires FX Trade Financial and Cryptocurrency Exchange

BitTrade For $50 Million Eric Cheng has completed a 100 percent stake acquisition of FX Trade Financial and its affiliate company BitTrade. The Singapore based entrepreneur shelled out S$67 million ($50 Million) for the acquisition, making him the first foreign investor with a 100 percent stake in a Japanese cryptocurrency company.

BitTrade & FX Trade Acquisition

Eric Cheng

(Source: AffirmPlus)

Regulated by the Japanese Financial Service Agency (FSA), FX trade is one of the leading forex trading platforms, focusing on equities and currencies. BitTrade is the company’s trading platform geared towards cryptocurrencies.

With the acquisition, Cheng is set to gain exposure to one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency marketplaces. Yen accounted for nearly one-third of the global bitcoin transactions in December 2017. Following the acquisition, the management teams of FX trade and BitTrade are to scale up the platforms in a bid to enhance the international experience.

According to Alexa, a web traffic company owned by Amazon, 100 percent of the visitors to BitTrade come from Japan. An internationalization boost for the exchange could indeed help it grow while serving people from other countries like India, where the central bank has recently prohibited banks from providing services to cryptocurrency exchanges.

(Source: Alexa)

“The cryptocurrency industry is growing exponentially. Against this backdrop, the key to capturing the rising demand is having a well-regulated and licensed outfit. With this Japanese FSA-licensed platform, I will work closely with the regulators to scale this platform globally,” said Cheng.

Yahoo Japan recently completed an $18.5 million investment in BitARG, another cryptocurrency exchange with headquarters in Japan. The investment accords the company a 40 percent stake in the firm.

Japan’s Cryptocurrency Regulation

In the wake of the Coincheck hacking incident, the country’s top regulator tightened the rules that exchanges must adhere to if they are looking to operate in Japan. The regulator has also ordered the suspension of some cryptocurrency exchanges due to security concerns.

Japanese regulators also perform auditing and other security checks from time to time, as they seek to detect and close down loopholes. However, stringent regulations have forced some exchanges to close shop and move elsewhere.

Faced with regulations, 16 licensed cryptocurrency exchange platforms have come together and formed a self-regulatory body. The body is tasked with the responsibility of instituting checks and balances in the industry and come up with regulations for guiding exchanges and their day-to-day operations. Defaulters of the rules are to be fined for undermining the integrity of the market.

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Source: BTCManager.com
Original Post: Singaporean Entrepreneur Acquires FX Trade Financial and Cryptocurrency Exchange