In yet another sign that crypto is here to stay, the Japanese trading company Monex Group is thinking over proposing a buyout to Coincheck. The exchange, which suffered an $530 million heist near peak NEM (XEM) prices, remains appealing as trading fees are making exchanges a lucrative business model.
A more detailed announcement on the deal would come in the next few days, giving Monex access to all the active traders on Coincheck. For now, Coincheck does not provide trading, volumes, or pricing data to CoinMarketCap. According to Japanese sources, volumes on Coincheck vary, and the exchange is currently number five by size of trading. During the December peak, Coincheck was the largest exchange.
Monex is the third biggest Japanese brokerage by customer accounts. Earlier this year, its rival SBI Holdings, Inc. obtained a license to open a cryptocurrency exchange. However, the project is delayed for now due to security concerns.
While Japan is extremely lenient to crypto coins, its regulators are looking closely at exchanges. With the peak in both Bitcoin and altcoin prices in January, exchanges saw more activity than they were prepared for. Obscure exchanges like BitGrail and Cryptopia saw interest spike due to listing difficult to obtain coins. Later, BitGrail suffered a wallet attack stealin Nano (XRB) coins, while Cryptopia struggles with wallets withdrawals.
Coincheck has been relatively secretive about the theft of XEM coins. Trading has been renewed since, but NEM slid, hovering around $0.20.
The effect of the crypto world was also felt for Monex, as the company’s shares gained 23%, ahead of market performance. Monex has more than 1.74 million trader accounts, and offers brokerage services for stocks, forex trading, and funds. It is unknown under what form the crypto coin investments would be made, in case an exchange is integrated into the Monex portfolio.
The news were also seen as extremely positive in the midst of a protracted slide on the markets. A true mainstream acceptance of crypto coins as a tradable asset could, in theory, lift Bitcoin and other digital coins to much higher levels.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
