FTX Japan Plans To Refund Customers' Money By February

FTX Japan has created a recovery structure that would allow impacted consumers to reclaim their assets via Liquid Japan, the first exchange to be fully approved by the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA).

Customers of FTX Japan will become Liquid clients by mid-January, and they will have access to their money and assets as early as mid-February. Liquid's involvement in the process will begin with the acquisition of the customer book, followed by balance checks.

“We sincerely regret the significant inconvenience caused by the protracted suspension of services for the withdrawal of legal cash as well as crypto assets,” FTX Japan stated in a statement yesterday.

FTX finalized its purchase of Liquid Group earlier this month in order to serve Japanese consumers via a new subsidiary. The liquid is a bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange based in Tokyo. The FSA-regulated exchange also runs a clearinghouse for fiat-backed stablecoins, which allows for swaps, FX trading, and digital fiat onramps/offramps.

FTX Japan was first instructed by the Japanese watchdog to cease operations until December 9 and develop a “business development plan.” It has now added three months, until March 9, to comply with the regulator's instructions. The extension comes as the exchange continues to be unable to restore client assets, with its trading systems being inoperable.

FTX Japan was ordered to halt all over-the-counter derivatives transactions and associated margins, as well as new deposits. It also advised customers that services related to new account opening, spot trading, fiat currency deposits, inbound crypto transfers, and derivatives transactions will be suspended during the suspension period.

On November 8, FTX Japan ceased customer withdrawals after Japan's regulator instructed it to do so. This occurred soon after its parent company had a significant liquidity problem that allegedly cost $8 billion to resolve. However, three days later, FTX's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.

The Kanto bureau also ordered the exchange to keep its assets in Japan for the same period of time, while appropriately disclosing liabilities on its balance sheet.

The regulator argues that the exchange lacks the requisite framework to perform cryptocurrency exchange services in accordance with Japanese requirements.

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