By
Steve Muchoki
December 29th, 2023
Coincheck which was in the middle of the $530 million scandal in the beginning of this year has a chance to restore its positions as one of the biggest Japanese brokerages plans to buy the cryptocurrency exchange.
In January 2018 Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck became an object of active discussion and appeared on the news. Nevertheless, the management of the exchange was not happy to draw attention as Coincheck became an object of the massive cryptocurrency theft.
The $530 million scandal became the biggest ever cryptocurrency heist in history. Soon Coincheck may get a chance to turn over a new leaf as Japanese online broker Monex Group is planning on buying this cryptocurrency exchange.
Monex Group announced its plans on this taking over Coincheck this Tuesday. The statement is not providing lots of details. The exact dates and the price are still in question. The stakes are believed to be high: the estimate deal amount is likely to reach several billion yen. The details may be announced this week.
The deal is highly probable to benefit both parties. Coincheck got into big troubles while the massive cryptocurrency fraud happened. At that moment the exchange was trying to applying for a license from regulators – Japan’s Financial Services Agency. No need to say that this try ended in denial.
The new offer of Monex is likely to change the situation. The intervention of the Japan’s player will protect the assets of clients and implement anti-money-laundering measures. However, the management team of Coincheck is to be replaced. The whole exchange structure is expected to be rebuilt with the takeover of the new owner.
At the moment Monex Group is Japan’s No.3 online brokerage by customer accounts. The company is already successful – but that is not a reason to underestimate the deal with Coincheck. Even though the cryptocurrency exchange recently went through dark times, it still has a lot to offer to the Japanese online broker.
One of the evident benefits of buying Coincheck is accessing its database of users. The reputation of the exchange definitely suffered in the beginning of this year. Nevertheless, it still managed to make the best of the crypto frenzy.
The announcement of Monex Group got massive support. It is believed that the news of the Coincheck buying provoked the 5% rise of Bitcoin price as of 1:52 pm Japan Standard Time. The news from the Tokyo Stock Exchange is also optimistic: the shares surged 23 percent by the daily limit to 424 yen.
The deal is expected to start positive changes for both Monex Group and Coincheck. However, there is a range of difficulties the companies are highly probable to face. The influence of the regulator is significantly strong in Japan.
Financial Services Agency is supposed to provide Monex with the approval on the deal – and FSA is expecting strong arguments on preventing the situations like the massive theft of the digital currency in January. Also Monex has to get the support from the shareholders. The news on the further development of the Monex-Coincheck story is expected to be provided in the near future.
