Coinbase exits Japan, citing 'market conditions'

Coinbase has in a press release on Wednesday confirmed it is halting operations in Japan, citing 'market conditions' as the reason for the move.

The company had earlier hinted of plans to exit certain markets following the announcement of a 20% cut (about 950 people) to its workforce as part of its restructuring effort.

This follows in the footsteps of its crypto exchange peer, Kraken, which also announced plans to end operations in the country in December 2022.

According to the company, its Japan customers will have until February 16th, 2023 JST to withdraw their fiat and crypto holdings from Coinbase. Fiat deposit functionality will also be removed on January 20th, 2023 JST.

Customers can choose to withdraw their crypto holdings to any other Virtual Assets Service Provider, Coinbase Wallet or any other self-hosted wallet of their choice. Alternatively, customers can choose to liquidate their portfolio and withdraw their JPY to a domestic bank account.

The recent downturn in the Cryptoverse following the crash of FTX, has seen several crypto companies make adjustments to operations or make workforce reductions to adapt to the challenging environment.

Coinbase entered the Japanese market after completing its registration with the country's Financial Services Agency (FSA) in June 2021.