Huobi Japan Set to Offer Derivative Following Regulatory Approval

Japan’s Financial Service Agency (FSA) has granted Huobi Japan permission to register as a Type 1 financial instrument business.

Huobi Japan will be able to trade underwriting and manage cryptocurrency derivatives with this approval.

The Type 1 financial instrument business is designated under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act of Japan’s Financial Service Agency, the sole regulatory authority for financial services in the country. The agency also oversees banking, securities, and exchange, as well as insurance services.

A Major Milestone For Huobi Japan

The CEO of Htutobi Japan Haiteng Chen in a press release said the approval granted to the firm opens the opportunity to expand into crypto derivatives products to meet the growing demands of the market.

“We’re very excited to have reached this milestone. It will enable us to expand the business beyond spot trading and fuel then I can next phase of our growth in Japan.”

Cryptocurrency exchanges without this license will only offer limited spot trading services to digital asset customers.

Out of the 34 cryptocurrency firms in Japan, only seven have licenses to offer crypto derivatives. Securing this license meant the company met some specific asset levels.

The permit granted to the firm would allow Huobi Japan to offer trading and market-making services to customers. Huobi Japan, as of September 2021, offered trades of up to 14 cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Huobi Token (HT).

The company further plans to significantly expand its trading services and capabilities in Japan with a commitment to secure quality digital asset service for users in the country through its digital asset exchange. Since acquiring the Japanese licensed crypto-asset exchange BitTrade in 2018, Huobi japan has provided Japanese yen-to crypto compliant trading services.

Crypto Exchanges and Japanese Regulators

There are possibilities that cryptocurrency regulations will get stiffened in a few weeks to months, with Japan taking center stage. The country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has one of the most active regulatory bodies in the crypto space and has continually said it wants to provide additional security to digital currency investors in Japan.

The FSA has dedicated an entire section of its operations to cryptocurrencies, launching a panel of experts to help with crypto regulations. It also plans to implement the new cryptocurrency regulations in 2022. The rules aim to bring stability to the Japanese cryptocurrency market while also ensuring that it doesn’t impede the developments and innovations in the sector.

In June 2021, the FSA issued a warning to the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, for operating in Japan without authorization. The caution, which was the second of its kind, the FSA stated that Binance has continued to provide cryptocurrency services as an exchange without properly registering with it.

While Binance maintains that they do not currently operate exchange operations in Japan, the country was one of the first nations in the world to make it mandatory for cryptocurrency exchanges to register with the FSA properly.