Kraken finally returns to Japan after two years

Kraken, one of the largest US crypto exchanges, has finally found a way to go back to Japan. The exchange used to provide services in Japan until two years ago, when it decided to leave due to ‘rising operation costs.’

Kraken returns to Japan

Earlier today, October 22nd, Kraken announced that it successfully launched spot trading in Japan, offering several different cryptos. Among the offered coins, customers can now find Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP, as well as Bitcoin Cash.

The exchange has added crypto-to-crypto pairs, but there are also fiat-to-crypto pairs, where digital coins can be purchased directly with Japanese yen (JPY).

That means that customers can deposit or withdraw any of the five coins, as well as JPY.

Kraken claims that it is the only global crypto exchange that managed to enter Japan without a previous acquisition of some local company. However, this was not the case when it entered the Australian market earlier this year.

Back then, the exchange expanded its reach to the southern continent through an acquisition of an exchange known as Bit Trade, which is the oldest crypto exchange in Australia.

Kraken has a history with the eastern country

As mentioned before, this is not the first time that Kraken is offering services in Japan. In fact, the exchange has been servicing the country’s crypto users for four years, between 2014 and 2018. But, it supposedly had to leave due to growing operating costs, and it decided to expand to other areas.

Its return to Japan was originally announced about a month ago, after the exchange received a license to operate as a Crypto Asset Exchange Service Provider on September 8th.

It started allowing users to create accounts only 10 days later, on September 18th, which was around the time when it became an official US bank, as well. With Kraken once again being able to operate in Japan, it now plans to work on expanding its services and available assets over the coming months.