One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Kraken has offered its Japanese customers exciting tokens as started supporting Basic Attention Token [BAT], Chainlink [LINK], and OMG Network [OMG]. The exchange announced this via a blog post published on 12th January.
Chainlink, Basic Attention Token, OMG
Kraken noted on its Twitter,
Kraken was able to gain the crypto market interest left by the exit of Mt. Gox in 2014 as it filed for bankruptcy after suffering a $460 million hack. The authorities have managed to reclaim some part of the lost 800k BTC, but many are still missing.
However, the hacks have not made Kraken’s survival in Japan easy. Rather the exchange had to suspend its services in April 2018 in the country after a $500 million Coincheck hack. However, it returned to Japan in October 2020 with a set of just five tradeable cryptos including Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], Litecoin [LTC], XRP, and Bitcoin Cash [BCH].
In recent times, the Japanese regulations have become more stringent to protect the customers from these repeated scams. On 10th December, Japan’s ruling coalition approves a tax plan for the 2022 financial year that continued to treat token listings as taxable. This meant that once a token has been listed on an active market, issuers were liable to pay tax even if the coins don’t sell.
Many crypto companies have pleaded with the authorities to change the tax policies, however, their concerns were unheeded.
Japan’s regulatory outlook
Additionally, in August, the Financial Services Agency [FSA] set up a panel to develop a regulatory framework for the crypto industry. The lack of clarity over regulations has kept many crypto businesses on their toes. As the authorities were set to reveal the norms sometime this year, it should offer some relief to businesses and crypto users alike.
Meanwhile, the altcoins have been a part of a tumultuous crypto market. Chainlink was prepping for a rally as it noted a market price of $26, at the time of writing. BAT was trading at a value of $1.11 as it noted a 9.7% surge within the past 24-hours. OMG also noted a boost of 12.95% in value over 24-hours and was exchanging hands at $5.92.