On January 18, Coinbase formally declared that owing to market conditions, the company would cease operations in Japan and conduct a thorough evaluation of its activities there.
Customers of Coinbase Japan will have until February 16 to remove their cash and cryptocurrency assets from the marketplace. The leftover crypto assets that users of Coinbase Japan had after February 17 will be converted to Japanese yen. Deposits made in fiat currency won’t be accepted after January 20.
The company stated that customers might transfer their assets to Coinbase Wallet, a self-custodial wallet, or any other virtual asset service provider. Additionally, clients can liquidate their holdings and withdraw money to a local bank account.
Customers may rest assured that all users can withdraw their funds at the earliest convenience thanks to Coinbase’s emphasis on its commitment to making the service termination as seamless as possible.
As was previously said, Coinbase initially began strategizing its Japanese expansion in 2018 during a weak market.
Coinbase leaves Japan in the wake of Kraken, a different international cryptocurrency exchange that opted to stop doing business there in late 2022. The exchange cited a “poor crypto market” as the reason it encountered similar difficulties in Japan.
Both Coinbase and Kraken have drastically cut their workforces, with Kraken firing 30% of its employees not long after the FTX exchange failed in November 2022. Coinbase, which had previously slashed its personnel by 18% last year, said in January that it will further reduce its headcount by 20%.
According to data from CoinGecko, as of this writing, Coinbase’s daily trade volumes total $1.98 billion, a decrease of around 1.3% from late November 2022. Over the same time period, Coinbase’s monthly visits fell by more than 6%.