Japan’s self-regulating crypto body reveals first batch of Type II members

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On January 4, the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) announced the addition of five new crypto exchanges to their Type II member list. The new members are Coincheck, Everyone’s Bitcoin, Lastroots Inc., LVC Corporation and Coinage Corporation.

Exchanges that qualify for Type II membership must be in the process of applying for cryptocurrency trader registration with the government. This is the first announced group of new members to JVCEA’s class two member list since their October announcement that registration was open to crypto exchanges who were interested in applying.

The JVCEA also features a Type I membership, for fully government licensed exchanges, which has 16 members at the moment. In the future, the JVCEA plans to offer a Type III membership, which is still undefined on their website.

These new members help solidify the JVCEA’s place as a self-regulating body in the Japanese crypto space. Back in October, Japanese regulators gave the body legal powers to self-regulate shortly before they started accepting Type II members. This government recognition likely went some way to boost confidence by the exchanges in the JVCEA’s place in the industry.

The JVCEA has been keen to show that it is a responsible party in the industry as well. With Japan looking to set stricter regulations on the industry, the JVCEA got ahead of the pressure in October by setting limits on the quantity of customer funds kept in hot wallets, which are more vulnerable to hacker attacks.

The group also set limits on margin trading in July to protect domestic investors, which some analysts feared at the time would scare investors and exchanges away from the regulated space. These five new member exchanges demonstrate that those fears might have been overblown.

Coincheck continues their road to redemption from a significant hack last year. In the past month they have been awarded a license from the government, and approved for this JVCEA membership.