Japan e-giant GMO Internet to launch bitcoin trading exchange May 24th

GMO Internet Co., Ltd. a Japanese conglomerate offering a full spectrum of Internet services for both the consumer and enterprise markets is going to officially launch its own bitcoin trading service starting May 24th. Pre-registration is already open.

GMO-Z.com Coin Co., Ltd. will be the name of the service. This was announced by the internet company back in the winter and was first to be called GMO Wallet and was incorporated as such. With Japan making bitcoin an official payment form, the thinking was to go ahead and launch a full-scale exchange and trading service, not just a basic wallet service to hold coins.

The GMO-Z Coin team repeated a prior statement:

In recent years, utilization of virtual currency such as bitcoin is progressing in various transactions such as international remittance and settlement to individuals and companies, and it is said that the market size of virtual currency will reach 1 trillion yen in a few years.

In Japan, various provisions for protecting consumers have been established by the revised fund settlement law which took effect in April 2017.

A registration system was introduced that requires the establishment of a system to carry out overseeing the exchange industry properly and reliably. This is expected to increase the health of the market. Furthermore, starting in July 2017, the consumption tax on the transfer of virtual currency will also be eliminated, so virtual currency usage is expected to spread exponentially.

The exchange will be insured by Mitsui Sumitomo Kaika Kaisha Insurance Co., Ltd. to protect against cyber-attacks and theft, which was introduced to the country back in November. GMO-Z coin will also feature cold storage and multi-sig. Users will be able to purchase bitcoin in Japanese yen and also sell bitcoin. Trade is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, the trading fee is 0 yen with no withdrawal fees and minimum trade will be 0.0001 BTC.

The new company is launching with 500 million yen in capital reserves, way above the requirement noted in exchange regulation. It is also planned that GMO-Z coin will eventually introduce Ethereum trading.