LINE May Soon Receive Crypto Exchange License From Japan’s FSA

LINE, the Japanese messaging giant is reportedly close to receiving a Crypto exchange license to operate in Japan. According to a Bloomberg report made on Thursday, the digital asset and Blockchain centered arm of the messaging giant, LVC Corporation, will be opening a Cryptocurrency exchange in the country once it receives the license.

BitMax To Utilize Same Back End Infrastructure As BitBox

Going by the report, which sites sources privy to the information, the country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) may be issuing the firm with a Crypto exchange license as soon as in the course of the month. Once it receives the regulatory clearance, LINE will launch the trading platform dubbed BitMax which will make it possible for its 80 million users to trade in various major digital currencies as well as the company’s native token Link.

According to a recent press release made by LINE, on a monthly basis the company sees 187 million users globally. The company also has an estimated 50 million users signed up for its LINE Pay, a mobile payments service. Mid last year, in July, the company launched a Singapore based global Crypto exchange called BitBox which is focused on the users. The soon to be released Crypto exchange will reportedly utilize a similar back end infrastructure as the one used in BitBox.

BitBox is currently inaccessible to users within Japan as it has not satisfied Japan’s exchange license requirements. All Cypto exchanges operating within the country must have a license from Japan’s FSA. This was made mandatory in 2017, April, during the amendment of the Payment Services Act and since then the FSA has continually increased the requirements for applications.

LINE On Expansion Mode

Japan currently has a total of 19 Crypto exchanges operating legally after receiving a license from the FSA. This low number is due to the agency tightening up its inspection after CoinCheck fell victim to a $530 million hack early last year. Coincheck received a licence from the agency early this year. Bloomberg further added that LINE has applied for another banking license in the country which would promote more integration between digital currencies and its other services. With a banking license, the company will be able to create Crypto payments options for services such as online shopping.

LINE launched its own native token Link late last year and since then is continually developing its Crypto ecosystem which is based on Link Chain, the firm’s own Blockchain network which is service oriented. The Blockchain network also facilitates the direct application of decentralized applications to the company’s messaging platform.

Earlier this month LINE announced its collaboration with Visa, the payments services company based in the United States. This partnership is aimed at coming up with new solutions in Blockchain and digital payments.

A Major Boost For The Crypto Space

Just this week social media giant Facebook released the white paper for its Libra Crypto project. According to previous reports, a Facebook Cryptocurrency could prospectively be adopted by the 2.7 billion users the company has on its multiple social platforms.