Monex Boss Sees “Innovation” Benefits of Crypto Regulations

The CEO of online brokerage Monex says he welcomes talk of cryptocurrency regulations, and says “innovation” was the primary reason why his company bought beleaguered Japanese exchange Coincheck.

Coincheck had been on the verge of bankruptcy following a massive hack in January this year, and a number of the exchange’s customers are still hoping to sue the company to the tune of millions of US dollars.

And with Japan’s financial regulator pushing for stricter regulations for exchanges – and the government hopeful of convincing G20 members to introduce wordwide crypto governance measures – some are predicting hard times ahead for Japanese investors.

However, Oki Matsumoto, a key figure in developing futures trading in Japan in the 1980s, has welcomed talk of regulations as “healthy,” saying it could provide the industry with an opportunity to innovate – just as was the case in the Eighties.

Media outlet IT Media News quotes Matsumoto, who was speaking at a Tokyo tech conference on June 19, as saying, “In the 1980s, financial derivatives were the big thing. Many European governments wanted to regulate them. People were concerned that they represented a form of gambling. All sorts of stakeholders from all over the world, such as traders, lawyers, accountants, investors and academic experts, gathered together to discusse possible regulatory measures […] Bringing together all these great financial minds from around eventually resulted in remarkable innovation.”

The CEO, who hopes to open an American branch of Coincheck, also enthused about the cryptocurrency industry, which he first became interested in back in 2013. He stated, “Cryptocurrency is global and it’s cutting-edge. I don’t understand anyone who does not want to get involved in crypto now, because it’s the most exciting thing around.”