Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is exiting Japan due to market conditions. The move comes days after the company announced its third round of layoffs in less than a year amid an ongoing bear market.
In Wednesday’s blog post, exchange Told It has made the “difficult decision” to halt operations in Japan and conduct a complete review of its business in the country due to market conditions.
Just a few weeks ago, rival exchange Kraken similar announcementStating that it would be shutting down its operations in Japan, citing a combination of “current market conditions in Japan” and a “weak crypto market globally” as reasons behind its decision.
Coinbase said it is “working to make the transition as smooth as possible.” The exchange elaborated that the fiat deposit functionality will be removed on January 20 and customers will have until February 16 to withdraw all their fiat and crypto holdings.
In an interview with BNN Bloomberg, Coinbase executive Nana Murugesan said last week that the exchange’s Japanese subsidiary is shutting down most of its operations. Murugesan said at the time, “We have made the decision to wind down most of our operations in Japan, which led to the elimination of most of the roles in our Japan unit.”
The extreme measures by Coinbase and other centralized crypto exchanges come as the digital-asset industry has been hit by a $2 trillion rout in token prices over the past year. A series of explosions, including the collapse of FTX, further exacerbated the downturn.
Coinbase, Crypto.com and Huobi are some of the largest crypto exchanges that have announced layoffs over the past year. As mentioned, Coinbase announced its third round of layoffs Last week, it reduced its workforce by another 950 employees, or 20% of its workforce.
Shares of Coinbase, which went public in April 2021 and reached an all-time high of nearly $370, have since lost nearly 90% of their value from their all-time high. Shares of the company are currently down more than 3% as the market digests its exit from Japan.
The exchange has also faced some regulatory scrutiny recently. Earlier this month, Coinbase Agreed Paying a total of $100 million to settle a complaint related to “certain historical deficiencies” in its regulatory compliance work.
Coinbase, one of the largest credit rating providers, has suffered another blow from S&P Global. downgrade Last week on Wednesday, the crypto exchange’s debt moved from “investment grade” to “speculative grade” in status of “BB-” from “BBB”.
“Coinbase’s trading volume has weakened meaningfully following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX (Unrated) and regulatory risks are on the rise,” the rating agency said.
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