Binance Acquires Japanese Crypto Exchange Sakura

Binance is getting back into the Japanese crypto market.

The world’s largest crypto exchange by total volume announced that it had acquired crypto exchange Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC). As SEBC is already regulated by Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA), the acquisition will allow Binance to reenter the country.

The amount of the acquisition was not disclosed. “Having carried out a significant due diligence process in Japan, we believe SEBC shares our vision for the Japanese market,” a Binance spokesperson told Decrypt via email.

The spokesperson said that the country will “play a key role” in the continued adoption of crypto given the size of its economy and its “huge potential in the emerging Web3 industry.”

Binance, Japan and regulations

This is not Binance’s first attempt to operate in the Japanese market.

The FSA has issued two warnings to the behemoth crypto exchange for operating in the country without a license.

The first occurred in 2018, when the financial regulator warned that Japanese residents had been able to use the exchange despite Binance operating without a license. A similar warning was again issued in June 2021 despite claims from 2018 that the exchange had left the country.

In September this year, the firm announced that it would attempt reentry into Japan by formally applying for an operating license with the FSA.

Binance has been engaged in an ongoing back and forth with financial regulators for several years. The company, which has time and again insisted that it “has no headquarters,” has brushed up against authorities in Malta, Malaysia, Holland, and the UK. Earlier this Summer, the Dutch central bank fined the crypto exchange $3.3 million for operating in the country without a license.

However, Binance has received a warmer reception in a number of countries, with France, Spain, and Italy all having approved the crypto exchange’s operations.