Japan’s Financial Services Agency has decided to approve Coincheck’s cryptocurrency exchange license, Nikkei Asian Review reported the news Dec. 19.
As per the news outlet, the announcement from the country’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency, the official report will be released towards the end of the year. The Nikkei report, however, emphasized, “it is not [the exchange’s] official announcement and we haven’t confirmed the fact yet.”
The FSA has heightened its scrutiny levels for local cryptocurrency exchanges following a number of hacking incidents where investors have lost lots of money.
The mother of all hacking incident happened in January when Coincheck Cryptocurrency exchange lost a record-breaking $532 million worth of NEM Tokens stolen from Coincheck’s wallet.
Before its hack, Coincheck was Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The theft forced Coincheck to halt trading, leaving its clients with no sell option as the market went into a long tailspin.
The FSA judged that the company improved customer protection and other systems after being purchased by online brokerage Monex Group in April.
Monex Group has itself issued a statement in response to the Nikkei Asian Review article, clarifying that the news “was not based on our announcement”:
“Coincheck, Inc. has been under review for a cryptocurrency exchange [license]. However, there is not any fact regarding the registration that has been determined. Moving forward, should there be facts regarding Coincheck, Inc. that need to be disclosed, we will do so in a timely and appropriate manner.”
