FTX branch in Japan reactivates users’ fund withdrawals

The Japanese subsidiary of bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency exchange FTX said Thursday that it intends to start a program to return funds to users affected by the plight of the company, included in the group of 130 companies that filed for bankruptcy three weeks ago.

In a press releaseThe Japanese entity stressed that the assets held by the platform and responding to users registered by the company do not fall within the scope of the law. bankruptcy filing.

This, In accordance with the provisions of the law of Japan regarding methods of storage and preservation of assets and ownership rights to such funds.

FTX Japan has specified that this differentiation between user funds and corporate assets. was released with the support of the law firm representing the FTX Group. in bankruptcy proceedings in the United States.

“Japanese customers’ fiat money and cryptocurrencies should not be part of FTX Japan’s assets, given the way such assets and ownership interests are held under Japanese law,” the company said.

A “master plan” to return money to customers

For this reason, FTX Japan talks about a “master plan” to rehabilitate withdrawals, which. has already been approved by the new management of the FTX Group.led by John J. Ray III, successor to Sam Bankman-Fried (aka SBF), and reported to Japanese financial authorities.

“The management of FTX Japan is in regular dialogue with the Financial Services Authority of Japan and the Kanto Financial Bureau regarding the current status of the reactivation of the retirement service and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings underway in the United States,” the company said.

FTX Japan also reported that the development of the “master plan”. has already been initiated by the engineering team engineering team. “We will implement robust and secure processes by incorporating controls, security audits, reconciliations and reviews,” the company said.

However, the company did not provide further details, such as a specific timeline indicating when the collection service will be enabled or a roadmap of steps to be taken. However, they promise to provide this information “as soon as possible.”

According to Bloomberg data, FTX Japan K.K. currently holds about $94.5 million in cryptoassets. and $46 million in fiat currency in designated customer accounts.

Compliance with Japanese law

FTX Japan’s announcement responds to the fact that, as a company, it has complied with Japanese law. As such Have segregated and administered users’ funds they stored, without mixing them with the company’s finances.

The company claims to have deposited investors’ money denominated in yen, the local currency of Japan, into the SBI Clearing Trust Co. account. The cryptocurrenciesCryptocurrencies, while they were deposited in cold wallets (hardware wallets) “managed by our operations team in accordance with laws and regulations.”

It should be mentioned that as of 2018 there is the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Industry Association, a conglomerate of. exchanges and crypto-asset service platforms that are self-regulated to operate in the Asian country.

As CryptoNews reported at the time, this organization has imposed a number of measures that all exchanges must comply with if they want to operate on the island. One of these has to do with improving an entity’s internal information, such as statistics or total accounts and balances.

In addition, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan, which is the country’s main financial regulator, has had a strict stance toward the ecosystem of bitcoin. This government office has already proposed tightening of regulations against the market, and recently announced administrative measures against FTX Japan.