Following yesterday's extremely heavy volume (<a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-07/bitcoins-tokyo-whale-sells-400m-bitcoin-bitcoin-cash">Tokyo Whale?</a>) plunge in Bitcoin, regulators in Japan have cracked down on seven cryptocurrency exchanges (and ordered month-long suspensions for two more).

Interestingly, prices were relatively stable as the news hit (perhaps yesterday's selling was pre-emptive?)

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<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/japanese-financial-regulator-issues-punishment-notices-for-7-crypto-exchanges">As CoinTelegraph reports</a>, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) has sent “punishment notices” to seven crypto exchanges and temporarily halted the activities of two more after a round of inspections prompted by <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/japan-coincheck-exchange-freezes-all-withdrawals-as-up-to-723-mln-leaves-its-wallet" target="_blank">January’s Coincheck hack</a>, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/07/japanese-authorities-issue-punishments-to-several-cryptocurrency-exchanges.html" rel="nofollow,noopener" target="_blank">CNBC</a> reports Thursday, March 8.

The FSA issued business improvement orders for a lack of “the proper and required internal control systems” to seven exchanges, including Coincheck, which was specifically cited as lacking a system for preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

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image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

Exchanges Bit Station and FSHO are to be closed for one month from today, according to CNBC. The FSA reported that a senior Bit Station official used exchange customers’ <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/bitcoin" target="_blank">Bitcoin</a> (BTC) for personal purposes, and Bit Station has ended its application for registering as an exchange.

The hack of more than $500 mln of <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/nem" target="_blank">NEM</a> from the Japanese Coincheck crypto exchange has been attributed to the fact that the coins were stored on a <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/coincheck-stolen-534-mln-nem-were-stored-on-low-security-hot-wallet" target="_blank">low-security hot wallet</a>. In the aftermath of the hack, the FSA <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/japanese-fsa-inspects-recently-hacked-coincheck-exchange" target="_blank">inspected Coincheck</a> and ordered all Japanese crypto exchanges to submit reports on their risk management systems.

The FSA also announced in mid-February on-site inspections of <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/japans-financial-regulator-to-conduct-inspections-of-15-unregistered-crypto-exchanges" target="_blank">15 Japanese crypto exchanges</a>, those currently awaiting registration, of their computer safety system measures.

Coincheck had promised customers to <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/coincheck-to-refund-all-customers-affected-by-hack-faced-by-community-support" target="_blank">refund all stolen coins</a>, a statement supported by the FSA, who confirmed through CNBC that Coincheck had enough funds to do so and would be releasing a reimbursement plan later today.

Following yesterday's extremely heavy volume (Tokyo Whale?) plunge in Bitcoin, regulators in Japan have cracked down on seven cryptocurrency exchanges (and ordered month-long suspensions for two more).
