Japan’s Financial Services Agency approves first bitcoin exchanges

The Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) has released a list of the first 11 companies permitted to operate exchanges that trade fiat currencies against digital currencies such as bitcoin. Since the Payment Services Act (which legalized digital currencies in Japan) went into effect in April this year, all companies trading fiat for cryptocurrencies were required to register as a ‘virtual currency exchange business’. The law was enacted with the provision of a 6-month grace period to give companies the opportunity to complete registration. Those operating digital currency exchanges before the introduction of the registration system were labeled ‘deemed operators’ and fell into a few different statuses. According to the Japanese financial publication Newspicks, 17 companies remain under review,12 have chosen to shut down at their own discretion and two have not applied for registration.