Binance has announced on Friday in a blog post that it is beginning the process of transitioning Japanese users of its global crypto exchange to a specialized local platform that meets all the local regulations. This comes after the launch of similar entities in countries like the United States, such as Binance.US, which supports much lower volume and fewer trading pairs than the main branch.
The new platform will be available this summer, with the company planning to inform the launch date and further details in the coming months. Meanwhile, Japanese users will not be able to open any new derivative accounts on the global platform from June and have to close any existing positions by June 23. All open positions relating to Leveraged Tokens and Options will be liquidated automatically and the respective funds will be returned to the user’s wallet.
Starting from August, Japanese users will be able to start the identity verification (KYC) process and gain full access to the new platform in December. By November 30, they will no longer have access to any spot trading services on the global platform. Any supported assets held by current users will automatically be transferred to the new platform, while unsupported assets will be converted into Bitcoin (BTC).
The local exchange will only support 30 crypto trading pairs, which is significantly lower than the 600 available with the main branch. This comes after Binance’s acquisition of Sakura Bitcoin Exchange (SEBC) in November 2022, which will rebrand under Binance’s banner on Wednesday. With this, Binance will have its first compliant entity in East Asia, after failing to enter the Japanese market in 2018 due to pressures from the national securities regulator.
The Japanese government agreed last week to begin applying the “Travel Rule” to crypto exchanges, which requires crypto trading firms to provide sender and recipient information for crypto transactions in order to prevent criminal and terrorist misuse.
