Japan’s FTX unit K.K. decides to return back its client’s money

The FTX unit in Japan, a subsidiary of the failed cryptocurrency exchange of Sam Bankman-Fried, announced its decision to resume withdrawals this week to make the 1st of the FTX group to return funds to customers. 

FTX, also known as Futures Exchange, is currently a bankrupt company that previously operated as a crypto exchange and hedge fund. In November 2022, the FTX unit in the US went into the most chaotic bankruptcy that left over 1 million creditors worldwide, exacerbating and stranded in the crypto industry. The co-founder of FTX, Bankman-Fried, resigned as the Chief Executive after the massive blowup in the cryptocurrency industry following tighter regulation. He also refused to plead guilty to the fraud charges in the US trial. 

FTX Japan will be developing a special system to allow its customers to withdraw both crypto and fiat funds from the crypto exchange in Tokyo. 

He expressed happiness to see the Japanese crypto exchange move forward and expects it to continue to maintain the same for the US unit, according to Mark Botnick, the company’s spokesperson. Resuming withdrawals can mark a massive victory for the financial regulator in Japan, which has quickly moved to introduce strict rules in order to protect customers, including asset segregation. 

Japan’s international counterparts are being called to oversee cryptocurrency with a stringent outlook, just as their commercial banks do. Japan’s FTX unit may require some more time to process the withdrawals in case too many requests are placed by the customers. However, customers can withdraw their assets via the Liquid platform. 

Japan’s FTX unit is available for sale, based on a court filing. This sale is a result of the bankruptcy in the US that drew interest from a minimum of 41 parties. It had about ¥10 billion, amounting to a net value of $74 million in assets by September, along with deposits and cash worth about ¥17.8 billion by November.