Shares in Monex Group closed near a 10-year high on Friday after the Japanese online brokerage said it would pay ¥3.6bn ($33.5m) for cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck and prepare its troubled acquisition for an IPO.
The investment euphoria triggered by Friday’s deal came despite fresh evidence that Japanese authorities were intensifying their crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges in a country where trading in virtual currencies has proved extremely popular. Within hours of the Monex announcement, Japan’s Financial Services Agency placed immediate, two-month business suspensions on two local cryptocurrency exchanges, Eternal Link and FSHO — the former for misuse of customer funds and the latter for failure to comply with an earlier business improvement order. A third exchange, Last Roots, was issued with a business improvement order for failure to demonstrate sufficient countermeasures against money laundering.
https://www.ft.com/content/9063b3e6-397b-11e8-8eee-e06bde01c544
