By
Steve Muchoki
December 29th, 2023
Monex Group, a new owner of cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck, plans to build its own blockchain platform and conduct an initial coin offering.
As it has become known, Japan-based online brokerage firm Monex Group is now considering prospects of creating its own blockchain platform and conducting fund raising via initial coin offering.
Not so long ago Monex Group announced 100% share acquisition of Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck, and now the company is thinking over an opportunity to further develop its involvement into the cryptocurrencies world.
The firm informed that having Asia-Pacific and U.S. divisions it has chosen its Japanese office to lead its planned blockchain-related initiatives.
The submitted documents of Monex Group read:
“Japan segment will use blockchain technology for the aim of executing all the trading of financial products and every financial transactions in safety and at low cost. Creating our own blockchain and its ICO are in the scope.”
Though actually no more details about the company’s blockchain-related plans were revealed, Monex Group also reported on Coincheck’s financial standing after it had experienced a major hack, which had left a serious mark on its performance, and after which it had been acquired by the brokerage firm.
Monex Group specified that the exchange platform Coincheck has a 6.3 billion yen ($57 million) pre-tax profit within the fiscal year that ended in March 2018. This amount has been defined after deducting a platform’s significant loss of 47.3 billion yen ($432 million). Nevertheless, the reasons and factors that had resulted in this loss were not enumerated.
Coincheck has reassured investors that they will have back their $420 million lost due to the major hack that ocurred in January. In the end of January, Coincheck made an announcement that hackers had stolen nearly 530 million NEM token from the platform. At that time 530 million NEM token were worth around $530 million.
But a little bit later it was made public that the platform had taken a decision to compensate each stolen token not at a rate of $1, but at a lower rate of $0.81 per token, which means that the sum to be compensated is worth approximately $420 million.
This major hack became the biggest ever cryptocurrency scandal in history. But in the beginning of April, Monex Group decided to give a chance to the platform rescuing it via 100% share acquisition. That became a win-win deal for both parties.
Thanks to the intervention of Monex Group, the assets of Coincheck’s clients will be protected, and moreover, a new owner will implement anti-money-laundering measures.
As for Monex Group that occupies the 3rd position among Japanese online brokerage firms, according to customer accounts, this deal grants it access to Coincheck’s user database.
Speaking about Monex Group general attitude to cryptocurrency exchanges, we should highlight that the company’s CEO Oki Matsumoto believes that cryptocurrency exchanges should be regulated just like the traditional banks, which will eventually provide more security and stability to these platforms.
