Reports from the Japanese Forex market, showed that Japanese Forex traders began to invest in Bitcoin Forex.
Japan’s financial giants will soon start to push startups out of the country’s cryptocurrency market. In fact, the CEO of block-chain identity startup Soramitsu is sitting across from Mike Kayamori, the CEO of bitcoin exchange Quoine, who is already shifting his company from the consumer market for this reason.
Takahashi, HAW International’s director, and Hitoshi Kakizawa, head of block-chain at Deloitte’s Japan subsidiary, Support and agree that when new legislation becomes law later this year, Japan’s block-chain market will see a radical change.
Takemiya, a member of the Hyperledger block-chain consortium, believes that “big financial institutions” are lining up to add a new asset class to their existing product offers.
Kayamori, whose exchange raised $16m in a funding round last year, doesn’t agree with them, but he’s just as certain this transition will begin to take place in April. That’s when a law passed in Japan, which will require exchanges to register with the country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA), will go into force, and digital currencies will become regulated.
When that happens, major foreign exchange (FX) players including GMO Internet, SBI Holdings, Monex and Hirose Financial will all seek to launch services that help boost customer activity via new product offerings.
“They’re going to put bitcoin, ethereum and ripple, they just haven’t decided who they are going to outsource to, or who their liquidity partners will be,” Kayamori said.
Others at the table all agree that, despite the increasing focus on enterprise blockchain and distributed ledger applications, movement on cryptocurrency will be a beachhead in Japan. “They want to get the new business,” Kakizawa said. “They want more currency.”
Japan market changes:
Despite this agreement, the startups selected for the exchange program have varied views obout blockchain tech.
Kayamori, for instance, was there to meet exchanges including "Paxos’s itBit" and the "Winklevoss-backed" Gemini exchange, along with market makers and hedge funds.
On the other side, Takahashi noted that HAW International (18 years old IT services enterprise) is looking to conduct proofs-of-concept projects with financial institutions, encouraging them to explore how traditional assets could trade on public blockchains.
“These take three days of settlement, but on the blockchain this kind of program takes 10 minutes,” Takahashi said.
Takahashi favors the bitcoin blockchain for his work with institutions, praising its simple scripting language as an asset, even as interest migrates to platforms like ethereum.
By contrast, Tohmatsu, Kakizawa said, was there to observe and learn, so that it can keep tabs on the growing market as a value-add for its service offerings.
The delegation itself is part of a 55-strong startup group, of which 13 were sent to New York. All are there to meet business contacts and better understand how their products might fit into the world market.
When the changes ahead are expected to create new pressures, all agreed that they will improve Japan’s cryptocurrency market.
At the end of the meeting, Kayamori encourages Takemiya to apply his blockchain-based know-your-customer platform to the market, but he’s not sure it’s the right move.
Forex Gate thinks that changes will occur and Japanese trader will go to the bitcoin forex in the coming days.
Tell us what do you think that is going to happen in the Japan Forex market!