The Bitget crypto exchange will be exiting the Japan market by the end of this year, it informed its users there on Monday. The move comes after the Seychelles-based company failed to complete the required registrations with Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA).
Bitget has stopped accepting new registrations from Japanese residents starting August 3. The exchange will start deploying gradual restrictions for its Japan-based users from November 1 and finally phase off its operations completely in the country on December 31.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to comply with Japanese regulations, we have decided to discontinue providing services to residents of Japan. Accordingly, we will be gradually applying restrictions to accounts of Japanese residents,” the announcement said.
Bitget is reaching out to its users being identified as Japanese residents with more information. It said that if a user wrongfully gets identified as Japan-based, they would need to complete a Level 2 identity verification process.
“If the above verification process is not completed by November 1, 2026 , your account will be automatically determined to belong to a resident of Japan,” the announcement noted, indicating that these users could lose access to their accounts.
Bitget had been serving to crypto users in Japan since 2023 despite not having acquired the necessary regulatory approvals.
As per reports, the exchange was warned by Hapan’s FSA repeatedly between 2023 and 2024 to complete these registrations. For now, whether Bitget is looking to complete its registration in Japan or not remains unclear.
Meanwhile, the existing accounts belonging to Japanese users will be restricted to “Close-Only” mode.
The exchange has, however, recently expanded to New Zealand with an FSP license. The platform is also planning to enter the U.S. market in the coming months.
Japan recently moved its crypto ecosystem under its existing financial rules. The country essentially classified digital assets as financial products and levied punishments ranging from three years to ten years for unregistered crypto operators.