The Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA) has total control over the Japanese crypto market, as thanks to its regulations, it’s one of the safest crypto jurisdictions around. Line Messenger – one of Japan’s most popular instant messaging platforms – has submitted an application for its own crypto exchange. Named BitMax, the application is expected to be approved in the coming days. If the application is successful, it will be a huge boost for Line and we could see it integrate crypto payments, as well as the ability to buy and sell crypto directly in app.
Attempting to Revitalize its Share Price
Ever since 2016, Line’s share price has been teetering due to a low new user acquisition rate, and it’s hoping to fix this with a crypto exchange in Japan. Line already has an exchange in Singapore – BitBox – and it will purportedly be a very similar platform, even sharing the same backend. Earlier this year, Line teamed up with Visa to help boost its Line Pay app by making it viable globally, and a crypto exchange appears to be next on its list of goals. However, if the exchange isn’t successful in raising acquisition rates, we could see Line slide off into the ether.
Thousands of Requests to Deal With
Late last year, the JFSA announced that it was planning on fine-tuning is prestigious crypto regulations. It announced the proposed changes back in December 2018, and this caused a flurry of companies to apply for regulation certificates before the deadline came into effect. Once the new regulations are live, all new applicants must meet the criteria. Over 3,000 exchanges applied; the reason why it has taken Line’s BitMax exchange so long to make it this far.
Ideas Line Could “Borrow”
Last month, we saw Lite.im launch its brand-new crypto wallet service for WhatsApp, Messenger, and Telegram. Setting up a wallet is really quick and easy, leaving users to be able to receive, send and hodl crypto in less than five minutes. Line could take a few notes from the design and simplicity of Lite.im and include it into its own app. If it does, then we could see more people shifting to Line Pay over competing products in the region.
BitMax is looking like it will get the green light, and if it does it will likely launch in the next couple of weeks. For now, BitMax will only be available to users in Japan – or people using a VPN.
