Kraken Announces Crypto LINK, BAT, And OMG Now Available For Users In Japan

Kraken presents 3 new cryptocurrencies namely LINK, OMG, and BAT for users in Japan. (Kraken)

JAKARTA – One of the largest crypto exchanges, Kraken announced that it has presented Chainlink (LINK), OMG (OMG), and Basic Attention Token (BAT) cryptocurrencies. The announcement was made by Kraken via a blog post on January 12, 2022.

The information follows one month ago Kraken boss Jesse Powell visited Tokyo to help restore the Mt. Gox which almost collapsed due to hacking events experienced by the platform since 2011.

Then in 2014, Mt. Gox briefly filed for bankruptcy after hackers stole $460 million a month earlier. In the same year, Kraken filled the void of crypto exchanges in Japan which were previously dominated by Mt. Gox.

In April 2018, Kraken suspended its services in Japan following the theft of $500 million in Coinchek. This led to tighter government oversight of the platform.

In 2020, Kraken re-opened its services in the country of Sakura which allows Japanese residents to trade five cryptocurrencies namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), and finally Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Following in August 2021, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) formed a panel of financial experts to develop a stricter regulatory framework for the crypto industry which is expected to be finalized by the end of this year. In addition, the FSA also intends to introduce new restrictions for stablecoins as reported by U.Today.

With the listings of LINK, BAT, and OMG, the Japan branch of Kraken also announced that consumers can "deposit and withdraw starting today", on Wednesday 12 January 2022.