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Coinbase has officially announced the launch of its services in Japan as well. 

In the announcement, the company says that, in line with its global strategy, it aims to become the most accessible and reliable exchange to use in Japan, fully compliant with local regulations.

Japan was not only one of the first countries to embrace cryptocurrencies; it is also one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency markets by trading volume. It only allows cryptocurrency exchanges to provide services to Japan’s residents upon obtaining a specific license. 

Coinbase, for the occasion, also announced a partnership with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the largest banks in Japan with 40 million customers. 

The announcement reads:

“Our partnership with MUFG will help millions of people in Japan access our platform quickly and begin trading on our exchange by offering MUFG Quick Deposit for all customers in Japan from day one.” 

By now, it seems that cryptocurrency buying and selling services are increasingly integrating with traditional banking services, which have already been supporting trading services for some time, for example, on the stock or bond market. 

On the other hand, the demand from customers is getting higher and higher, so it is logical to expect that banks will also want to offer them cryptocurrency trading services. 

Coinbase in Japan

Coinbase has stated that this launch is just the beginning of its expansion in Japan, as it will strive to encourage the use of cryptocurrencies among the Japanese by launching other retail services in the future as well. 

It must be said that Japan was, by far, several years ago, the first state in the world to formally and officially recognize Bitcoin as a currency, albeit not legal tender, and that perhaps the creator of Bitcoin did not choose a Japanese pseudonym (Satoshi Nakamoto) by chance. 

Coinbase has even been around since 2012 and has always presented itself as an easy-to-use exchange for anyone to buy and sell BTC. It later added many other cryptocurrencies and many other services, becoming one of the global giants in the cryptocurrency sector, so much so that it went public in April this year. 

To be fair, COIN’s share price on the Nasdaq fell 3% yesterday, but the announcement of the expansion in Japan happened with the market closed, so it might not have affected the price yet. 

 

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