Payward Asia clients have until January 31st 2023, to withdraw their holdings.
Kraken, a United States–based cryptocurrency exchange and bank established in 2011, will stop providing its services in Japan.
According to the blog post shared on December 28th, the cryptocurrency exchange is set to cease its operations and deregister from the Financial Services Agency by January 31st, 2023.
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The company claims that the decision to remove itself from the Japanese crypto market was made to “prioritize resources and investments” in areas that align with Kraken’s strategy and aim of long-term success.
On top of that, in its blog post, the team behind Kraken stated:
Current market conditions in Japan in combination with a weak crypto market globally mean the resources needed to further grow our business in Japan aren’t justified at this time. As a result, Kraken will no longer service clients in Japan through Payward Asia.
In the blog post, the cryptocurrency exchange noted that Japanese clients have until the end of January to withdraw their crypto and fiat holdings. On top of that, users are advised to move their crypto to an external wallet or convert it to Japanese yen and then transfer it to a domestic bank account.
During January, Payward Asia customers can withdraw an unlimited amount of funds. Nevertheless, staked funds “can be unstaked and transferred or converted as desired.” The company revealed that it is set to provide additional information about ETH unstaking shortly.
From January 9th, Japanese customers will no longer be able to deposit their funds. Kraken highlighted that users' funds, which will not be withdrawn until January 31st, will be handed to the Legal Affairs Bureau.
It is not the first time Kraken is leaving Japan. Kraken’s subsidiary Payward Asia operated in the country from 2014 to 2018. At that time, the company claimed that it decided to stop providing its services in Japan to expand to other “geographic areas.” However, after two years, in October 2020, Payward Asia opened its headquarters in Tokyo and started offering spot trading services.
