Japan’s SBI Holdings has reportedly unveiled new plans for its cryptocurrency exchange. The company has set a target launch date and is preparing to list major cryptocurrencies. The group’s CEO expects the new exchange to “be number one in the blink of an eye.”
Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space
Revised Launch Date
SBI Holdings has updated its plans to fully launch a cryptocurrency exchange. The company had planned for SBI Virtual Currencies to launch “in the autumn of 2017 and at the latest the beginning of 2018,” Minkabu publication recalled.
However, the plan was postponed following Coincheck’s hack and the trouble with its capital and business alliance agreement with China’s Huobi Group. These circumstances led the company to refrain from fully launching the exchange even though it had already received a license from the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) in September of last year.
Yoshitaka Kitao.
President and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said at a press conference this week that the company is planning to officially start the crypto exchange business in the summer, the news outlet conveyed, adding that the exchange “is not a white label of other exchanges but a self-developed” one. SBI Virtual Currencies has, however, been offering a limited service to a few customers since January 30, according to Business Insider Japan.
As for which cryptocurrencies will be supported when the full launch comes, Kitao said that “it is assumed to be major virtual currencies, [including] bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ethereum (ETH), [and] ripple (XRP),” the news outlet detailed.
Expecting to Rise to the Top
The company has been carefully considering the timing of its exchange’s full launch based on the hack of Coincheck and the subsequent change
