The Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) has issued a warning to offshore cryptocurrency exchange LBank Exchange for operating without proper registration.
According to a report published by CoinPost, the FSA stated that LBank Exchange had an “unknown address” and an “unknown agent” and was conducting online cryptocurrency exchange trading with Japanese residents as its counterparties. This breaches the FSA's operational guidelines, which require exchanges to be registered and comply with certain standards to ensure the protection of investors, according to the statement.
LBank Exchange, a small to mid-sized exchange, ranks 56th in terms of 24-hour spot trading volume, according to the CoinGecko database. Despite its size, the exchange's lack of transparency and regulatory compliance has raised concerns among Japanese officials.
This is not the first time the FSA has taken action against unregistered exchanges. In March last year, the agency warned four other companies, namely Bybit Fintech Limited, MEXC Global, Bitget Limited and Bitforex Limited, for providing cryptocurrency trading services without registration. Despite these warnings, it remains impossible to access and trade on these platforms from Japan.
*This is not investment advice.
