Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has issued warning letters to several cryptocurrency platforms, including KuCoin, for operating financial instruments business without proper registration, the regulator said in an update on Thursday.
The FSA’s latest list of entities “conducting financial instruments business without registration” shows that KuCoin, NeonFX, theoption and GTCFX each received a March notice for allegedly soliciting over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading online. Of the four, the FSA specifically flagged KuCoin—headquartered in the Seychelles—for offering services to Japanese residents, while the other firms were described as serving international users.
This action follows a similar November 2024 warning from the FSA to KuCoin and other exchanges, including Bybit, over provision of products and services to Japanese customers without appropriate registration. In February 2025, Japanese authorities reportedly asked Apple and Google to suspend downloads of KuCoin’s mobile app.
Japan remains a significant market for crypto. The FSA reported in February 2025 that there were more than 12 million crypto accounts in a population of roughly 123 million, and Chainalysis placed Japan 19th in its 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index.
Cointelegraph contacted KuCoin for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The FSA notice arrives as regulators move to shift crypto oversight from the Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. That change would alter reporting duties for initial exchange offerings and token issuers and would give authorities broader enforcement powers against unregistered trading platforms.
Separately, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi—who has served as Japan’s prime minister since October 2025—publicly denied any connection to the so-called “Sanae token” after the project briefly reached an estimated market value of about $28 million before plunging; the FSA was reportedly weighing an investigation.
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