Coinbase has announced that it will cease its operations in Japan, hinting at another effect caused by the industry-wide influence of the crypto winter.
On the 18th of January, Coinbase officially announced that market conditions caused the company to shut down its Japan operations and take a closer look at the activities performed in the Asian country.
Japan-based Coinbase users have a deadline until the 16th of February 2023 to withdraw their crypto and fiat assets from the crypto exchange. Once that deadline is passed, all Coinbase Japan customers with assets left over in their accounts will have them converted to JPY (yen) automatically. After the 20th of January, users in Japan won’t be able to deposit fiat currency on Coinbase.
The crypto exchange states that customers can transfer their assets to another digital asset service provider, the Coinbase Wallet, or a self-custodial wallet. Furthermore, users have the option to liquidate the holdings and transfer the resulting funds to their local bank accounts.
The company emphasised that it is committed to not allowing the termination of its service in Japan to hinder its customers, so it assured users that all of them can remove their assets when they see fit, prior to the deadline.