On June 14, Money Partners Group (securities code : 8732), one of Japan’s leading foreign exchange brokerages, announced that an agreement had been reached to acquire all the shares of a special-purpose company that owns all the shares of COINAGE, which is preparing to register as a cryptocurrency exchange, and make both companies its subsidiaries. The Money Partners Group is reported to have abandoned a plan announced on March 25, 2019 to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary designed to engage in the cryptocurrency exchange business.

Money Partners Group has focused on delivering cryptocurrency services by registering Money Partners—a wholly-owned subsidiary and a provider of foreign exchange and securities transaction services—as a cryptocurrency exchange. However, there has been a tendency among financial institutions, which are the company’s customers, to exclude cryptocurrency exchanges from business counterparts by regarding the handling of cryptocurrencies itself as high risk. The company has not yet started the service because providing cryptocurrency-related services at this time could adversely impact the company’s existing services outside the cryptocurrency exchange business.

Apart from the cryptocurrency exchange business designed to provide settlement services, which has been pursued by Money Partners, Money Partners Group had been planning to establish a subsidiary, whose main focus would have been the cryptocurrency exchange business, including capital gain-oriented trading, in order to offer a wide range of blockchain technology-related services in the future. However, the company is reported to have judged it more rational to engage in the business by making COINAGE, which is achieving progress in the registration process, a consolidated subsidiary.

In Japan, Monex Group, leading online securities trading company, acquired Coincheck, Japan’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, which fell victim to a hacking attack, and made it a wholly-owned subsidiary last year. Increasing attention is being given to whether or not more finance-related companies will participate in operating cryptocurrency exchanges in the future.

*This article was written by Fisco