Japan’s Financial Services Agency has ordered two cryptocurrency exchanges — Bitstation and FSHO — to stop doing business for a month. Five others, including Coincheck, were instructed to improve internal controls and report back to the regulator.
The action follows an investigation into digital currency exchanges that found poor compliance with anti-money laundering standards, badly trained staff and “misappropriated” cryptocurrencies. The probe followed a $500m theft, in January, at Coincheck, one of the largest operators.
The crackdown is likely to prompt a shake-up in Japan’s booming market for cryptocurrency trading as weaker exchanges go out of business or team up with larger, better-organised competitors.