Singaporean Multi-millionaire Cheng Buys BitTrade for Over $67 Million

by 99Crypto

BitTrade, the Japanese crypto exchange, has been bought for over $67 million by Singaporean multi-millionaire and entrepreneur, Mr. Eric Cheng. According to Asia One, he will be taking 100 percent of the shares in BitTrade Co., Ltd, one of the few crypto exchanges to ever receive a license from Japan's Financial Services Agency. Cheng has also acquired ownership of BitTrade's affiliate company, FX Trade Financial Co., Ltd, the leading forex trading platform in Japan.

This makes Cheng the first foreign investor to ever have a full stake in any FSA-licensed trading platform. And he has big plans coming up. Mr. Cheng will be working to scale the BitTrade platform on a global level. He hopes to capture the rising demand of cryptocurrency by obtaining a well-regulated and licensed firm first. Both management teams have agreed to collaborate on expanding Japan's crypto exchange services, potentially strengthening their cybersecurity system and developing an interface that is more user-friendly to international trades.

A recent report by Cointelegraph Japan pointed out that BitTrade has no intention of changing their business framework just because they are now under a new owner. Their policies should stay the same as before so that current services continue to be available on exchanges. Furthermore, there have been two noteworthy crypto exchange scandals in Japan. One of them occurred in January: An unexpected $532 million stolen from Coincheck by hackers. And the other was the infamous collapse of Mt. Gox in Tokyo. Both of these events triggered an increase in strict regulations for cryptocurrency exchanges all across Japan.

As a result, the Japanese established their own self-regulatory body for trades in April 2018. Now they have more specific requirements for crypto exchanges, using a new framework to monitor customer accounts. Providing assistance to their domestic operators, some who have relented under pressure from the FSA, the board continues to accept new cryptocurrencies in Japan. During the past week, a well-known Japanese financial tech company has announced its release of a crypto asset exchange prior to the end of this year.