Coinbase halts operations in Japan, customers to withdraw assets

• Coinbase has announced that it has stopped its operations in Japan.
• The exchange has cited “market conditions” for the move.
• Customers are advised to withdraw funds before the deadline

After announcing its plans to cut down operation costs by 25% last week, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has today announced that it has halted operations in Japan.

The exchange seems to be taking drastic measures to avoid going the way of the other crypto firms that have filed for bankruptcy due to liquidity issues. In today’s announcement, the exchange cited market conditions as the reason behind the halting of operations in the third-largest economy in the world.

The introduction of the announcement reads:

“Due to market conditions, our company has made the difficult decision to halt operations in Japan and to conduct a complete review of our business in the country. However, we are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for our valued customers.”

Feb. 16 deadline to withdraw assets

Following the announcement, Coinbase will remove the fiat deposit functionality on January 20, 2023, after which Japanese customers will have until February 16, 2023, to withdraw their fiat and crypto assets from the exchange.

Customers will be allowed to withdraw their assets to the Coinbase wallet, any other self-custody wallet, or any other cryptocurrency service provider. They can also choose to liquidate their assets and withdraw in form of JPY, Japan’s national currency.

After the elapsing of the deadline, customers will have to coordinate with the Legal Affairs Bureau to get their balances.

The statement read:

“In the month following February 17th, Coinbase will send any remaining JPY to a Guaranty Account at the Legal Affairs Bureau in accordance with legal requirements. If customers do not take any action before February 16th, they will have to coordinate with the Legal Affairs Bureau to retrieve their JPY balance.”