Kraken Poised to Launch Trading Between Bitcoin and JPY

The Bitcoin Exchange , Kraken is poised to launch trading between the cryptocurrency and the Japanese yen in a matter of hours, slated for 7:00 PM EST/8:00 AM JST launch amidst rising demand for domestic JPY deposits.

The report comes on the heels of an earlier announcement last week, which portended JPY trading and a Kraken launch in Japan by months end. The move to extend JPY trading on Kraken has been an arduous process given staunch regulatory barriers from the Japanese government.

In addition to Kraken pioneering efforts to facilitate domestic JPY trading in Japan, the exchange assisted Japanese parliament member Mineyuki Fukuda and the IT Committee of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in establishing the Japan Authority of Digital Assets (JADA), effectively serving as a liaison between Bitcoin firms and government entities.

According to Kraken CEO Jesse Powell in a recent statement on the launch, "we recognized in 2011 that the exchange is the most important and fundamental part of the Bitcoin ecosystem. This is why Kraken was founded. It was clear to us that a strong foundation can only be achieved by doing what's in the best interests of clients and the space as a whole."