Japan regulator issues another warning that Binance is operating in the country

Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) issued another warning against crypto exchange Binance on Friday, saying that the exchange is still operating in the country without registration.

The FSA said Binance is doing business with Japanese residents via the internet despite lacking permission to do so.

The FSA's new warning comes over three years after it issued a similar notice against Binance in March 2018. At the time, the regulator said Binance would face criminal charges if it continued to do business without a license. This forced the exchange to move its headquarters out of the country, officially moving to Malta (before eventually adopting a "decentralized" structure).

Last year, Binance said that it would implement a "gradual restriction of trading functions" for Japanese residents "at a later date." But the exchange's Japanese website is still accessible at the time of writing, even for new account creations. And when accessing the site via a VPN, Binance does not appear to block Japanese IP addresses.

A Binance spokesperson told The Block that the exchange "does not currently hold exchange operations in Japan, nor do we actively solicit Japanese users."

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

When asked whether that means Japanese users can visit the Binance website on their own and trade, the spokesperson declined to comment.

Last month, the FSA also issued a warning against Bybit, saying that the crypto derivatives exchange is unregistered and still operating in the country.


Update: This story has been updated to include comments from a Binance spokesperson.

For more breaking stories like this, make sure to subscribe to The Block on Telegram.

About Author

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.