Yahoo Japan Launches Its Own Crypto Exchange

The crypto space is constantly growing and evolving, and with the arrival of 2019 — a lot of non-crypto companies have started entering the space, as well. The most recent example is Yahoo Japan, which has just launched its brand new crypto exchange, Taotao. The company announced the launch of its exchange over a year ago, in April 2018.

The platform was originally named Bitarg, but after the firm had acquired it in February, it was rebranded to Taotao. The platform was licensed by Japan’s regulator, the FSA.

Taotao goes live

The platform’s launch was announced quite recently, on May 30th, by its President, Shinichiro Arakawa. Further, it started off with a commemoration campaign, which allows traders to trade with no fees for the initial 30 days. This was an excellent deal for anyone looking to buy cryptocurrencies and perform cryptocurrency trading on the exchange quickly started to grow.

Not only that, but the new exchange also offered margin trading for numerous coins, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, and Litecoin. As part of the initial campaign, the open position management fees from leverage transactions are waived for the entirety of the first month.

The new exchange also comes with a new slogan — New Money, New World. Its goal is to allow easy and safe crypto trading for anyone who wishes to work with digital currencies. The exchange can be used via the browser, but it also has mobile apps for Android and iOS. While margin trading includes five cryptocurrencies mentioned above, traditional crypto trading only includes Bitcoin and Ethereum at this time.

Even so, Taotao aims to join the ranks of the best digital crypto exchanges, claiming to offer the best trading experience in an isolated environment, away from all external networks. The exchange keeps the funds in cold storage, which is great in terms of security. Another security detail includes multi-signature technology, which requires the approval of several individuals when it comes to withdrawals.

Finally, Taotao also requires a 2FA to ensure that no one will break into their users’ accounts. Users can also go through the registration process much quicker by simply signing up with Yahoo Japan ID. However, they must still provide a photo ID in order to be fully approved and verified. The rules are strict, but this has been the case in Japan ever since the Coincheck hack, which was the first major event in January 2018.

Japan’s crypto exchanges make for a competitive market

The rules are not only strict for traders and investors, however, but for the exchanges as well. Acquiring licenses to operate digital currency trading platform is not easy in Japan, and Japan’s regulator has only allowed 19 exchanges in the entire country.

Even so, the very fact that an exchange owned by Yahoo Japan is not live and offering users to buy cryptocurrencies will likely have a significant impact on the crypto market. Yahoo, as well as Yahoo Japan, are massive, well-known, respected companies. Their involvement with digital coins is bound to bring additional attention to crypto, and many view it as an important step on the road to reaching the mainstream.

Yahoo Japan made sure that everyone will know about their new crypto venture through various ads, offering pre-registration accounts. While the new exchange emerges in quite a developed crypto market, with the likes of Bitflyer being one of its main competitors, Taotao seems optimistic regarding the future.

Bitflyer itself serves as proof of just how popular cryptocurrency exchanges are in Japan, with the exchange processing around 7,315 BTC ($58 million) yesterday, June 10th.

Apart from competing with Bitflyer, Taotao will also face competition from other new exchanges, such as the Fisco Cryptocurrency Exchange, Huobi Japan, Dexurret, as well as Rakuten.+