Japanese E-Commerce Conglomerate DMM To Close Cryptocurrency Mining Business

Ruti VoraJanuary 3, 2019Last Updated: October 30, 2020

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Mining, in particular, is quite an expensive business to lead. The process of mining consumes a large amount of electric power along with mining devices. This aspect can make the mining business a tough one.

Currently, Japanese e-commerce giant DMM.com is busy in the process of shutting down its mining business which was started less than a year ago. The decision to quit the business was taken because of the lack of profitability. The firm took this decision in September 2018. Then it started selling the company’s mining hardware, which will perhaps extend over the first half of 2019.

Previously, DMM had a plan to open a showroom for its mining operations, which can provide access for the public to see 1,000 mining machines on a 500 square meter site. The plan was eventually canceled due to security concerns.

On this, the founder of DMM.com’s mining business, Keishi Kameyama said that he will “work hard on ‘[the] exchange [business] and blockchains.” DMM was also intending to launch a crypto trading app dubbed “Cointap,” which by now is not going to be launched any time soon due to the firm’s hesitation towards crypto space. According to DMM, it is not the right time to be trying to attract beginner virtual currency traders, considering the bearish market and the big hack of Coincheck.

In 1999, DMM was found as an e-commerce site in Japan. DMM.com established itself as a crypto entity in September 2017 and later began its mining operations in the city of Kanazawa in October. It had also introduced a cryptocurrency exchange platform named DMM Bitcoin, in January 2018, which is one of 16 licensed trading platforms in Japan.

Additionally, this is not the only firm in Japan which is quitting crypto mining operations. Last week it was GMO Internet which has announced it will no longer develop, manufacture and sell Bitcoin miners, as it has experienced high losses of 35.5 billion yen (or $321.6 million) in Q4 2018.

The mining business shows a significant downward trend. Recently, reports of mass selloffs of mining hardware in China surfaced in November. With that, a mining giant Bitmain is laying off its staff because of crashing prices of crypto assets.