Japan’s SBI Holdings Bank-Owned Crypto Trading Exchange VCTRADE Launches

SBI Holdings Makes History As First Crypto Exchange To Be Launched By Bank

SBI Holdings has been talking about their goals to launch a cryptocurrency platform for well over two years, and it is finally happened. On Tuesday, the Japanese financial institution announced the launch of their exchange, which is presently known as VCTRADE.

Reports from CCN in June indicated that there would be a “limited launch” for 20,000 pre-registered users on the platform, which were originally enrolled in an alpha launch last year. Considering that Japan is one of the largest markets for cryptocurrency, this opportunity almost comes as a relief for consumers that have had months of regulatory laws being put into place.

The VCTRADE platform is operated by a subsidiary of SBI Holding – SBI Virtual Currencies, and they presently have applications available for users in Japan that want to open new accounts. With this public launch, Japanese investors from age 20 to age 70 can perform transactions on their new blockchain. However, the only businesses able to remain active on this platform will be retail investors, as they will not accept applications from investors from corporations or institutions.

When VCTRADE held its preliminary launch, they were allowing contributors access to XRP, which is the token of Ripple. Ripple and SBI Holdings have seemed to enter a partnership to usher the bank into the crypto world easily, creating a new operation called SBI Ripple Asia to expand the use of blockchain technology. A few weeks later, VCTRADE decided to integrate Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin to their platform, leaving them with a total of three different tokens that are eligible for use on their exchange.

Much of the reason for the delays in the SBI crypto launch have been due to their registration and licensing, which had to be approved through the Financial Services Agency (FSA). All of their documentation was complete and submitted by September 2017, but they still had to show their security measures met the regulatory requirements. This need for security is largely due to the $530 million hack that recently duped Coincheck’s exchange in January, so it is understandable that Japan would be stricter.

When the SBI Group originally declared their intention to move into the crypto world, the company had said,

“In recent years, virtual currencies, like bitcoin, have attracted plenty of interest and have been covered in major media. It [cryptocurrencies] are also being traded actively.”

It will be excited to see how SBI flourishes in the coming months.