Online broker Monex Group, known for buying hacked Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck in April, has announced it will launch cryptocurrency trading in the United States, Cointelegraph Japan reports Wednesday, Dec. 12.
Monex held a conference in Tokyo, where John Bartleman — president of Monex’s U.S. subsidiary TradeStation Group, Inc. — took part. He announced that crypto trading will be available for U.S. customers starting Q1 2019.
Moreover, Bartleman revealed that TradeStation is interested in crypto investments in general. The company has already joined the series B funding round of new U.S. crypto exchange ErisX, whose crypto services will soon launch pending the country’s financial regulators’ approval.
Speaking exclusively to Cointelegraph Japan, Bartleman claimed the platform is going to go live with the top five cryptocurrencies traded in U.S., which are Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH) and “maybe” Ripple (XRP).
TradeStation’s head also noted that the company is in the process of receiving a money transmitter licensing for every U.S. state, which would take from nine to twelve months.
According to Bartleman, TradeStation will focus on institutional investors in comparison to other U.S. crypto exchanges, such as Coinbase or RobinHood that target small investors.
The platform is going to interact with brokers and traditional markets, connecting multiple liquidity providers to attain volumes sufficient for core customers. “The mood has changed from this hysteria of all kinds of startups everywhere,” he further explained, stating that solid crypto firms are getting “mature” amidst the late 2018 market collapse.
Coincheck's president Toshihiko Katsuya also took part in the conference. As cited by Cointelegraph Japan, he revealed that the company is steadily restarting its business after an industry record-breaking hack when $534 million worth of NEM was stolen from its wallets.
However, English-language outlet Asia Nikkei Review points out that the recent market slide prevents the hacked crypto exchange from full recovery. The news outlet also noted that Coincheck is still waiting for approval from the Financial Services Agency (FSA), and the process is taking more time than the exchange had expected.
Monex Group first hinted about its plans to launch a U.S.-based trading platform late in July. As Cointelegraph reported, citing the company, TradeStation Crypto Inc. could be a cryptocurrency-focused subsidiary of securities brokerage firm TradeStation, which Monex acquired in 2011.