Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said that it will be shuttering its operations in Japan and its users has until 16 February to withdraw their assets.
All customers can withdraw their fiat currency and cryptocurrency holdings to other crypto service providers, Coinbase Wallet or other self-hosted wallets.
They can also liquidate their portfolio and withdraw Japanese Yen to their local bank account.
Once the deadline has passed the remaining crypto assets held by Coinbase’s customers will be automatically converted to Japanese yen.
After February 17th, Coinbase will deposit the remaining Japanese Yen balance with the Legal Affairs Bureau in accordance with legal requirements.
If the customer does not complete the withdrawal of Japanese yen by the due date, they will have to collect the Japanese yen from the deposit.
Coinbase said in a statement,
“Due to market conditions, our company has made the difficult decision to halt operations in Japan and to conduct a complete review of our business in the country. However, we are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for our valued customers.
We want to assure you that we have segregated the Japanese Yen and crypto assets of our customers in custody in compliance with the regulations, and we are committed to ensuring that all our customers can withdraw their assets at their earliest convenience. Fiat deposit functionality will be removed on January 20th, 2023 JST.”
Coinbase had launched in Japan in August 2021 where it had partnered with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) which serves 40 million Japanese customers to begin trading in Japan.