Japanese online broker Monex Group is planning to start trading in their United States cryptocurrency exchange in July, CEO Oki Matsumoto said on April 25, according to Cointelegraph Japan.
The spin-off, currently dubbed TradeStation Crypto, would serve semi-professional traders and seeks to shore up profitability for Monex’s cryptocurrency offerings.
Reuters also noted today that Monex had a loss of over $15 million on its crypto operations in 2018. The figure, part of financial performance data released this week, stems from the loss-making Coincheck exchange that Monex acquired last April.
Despite restructuring the platform and returning it to full regulated service, the operator saw total losses of 1.7 billion yen ($15.2 million) for the 12 months to March 2019.
Overall, Monex’s annual revenues dipped slightly compared to 2017, from $440 million to $420 million.
The report caps a difficult year for cryptocurrency businesses, with bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins spending much of the period in a phase of significant decline from previous highs.
In November, BTC/USD almost halved to hit recent lows of $3,100, a move which accompanied a drop in mining activity and cost-cutting exercises by exposed companies such as mining giant Bitmain and exchange Huobi.
However, as Cointelegraph reported, last week saw one investment deal alone contribute $200 million to the operator of South Korean exchange Bithumb by a Japan-based blockchain fund.
Monex also signalled changes could be afoot this month, with a plan to integrate crypto into its retail client offerings.