It appears that another large financial firm is leaving the cryptocurrency industry in Japan. Last week it was GMO Internet and this week, it’s e-commerce giant DMM.com, which is reportedly closing down its mining business in Kanazawa, Japan.
Local news outlets reported that DMM.com was exiting the nascent crypto industry from as early as Sunday. Speaking to The Nikkei on Monday, the founder of DMM.com’s mining business, Keishi Kameyama said that going forward: “he will work hard on ‘[the] exchange [business] and blockchains.’”
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The exchange business he is referring to is DMM Bitcoin, a subsidiary of the group, which is one of the 16 regulated cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan. Before Kameyama spoke to The Nikkei, on December 30, 2018, Toyo Keizai quoted the company as saying “Deteriorating profitability is the main cause” for the firm closing down its business.
The report by the outlet also further elaborated that the withdrawal process, which includes the sale of its machines, will go over to the first half of 2019.
DMM.com originally announced the establishment of its virtual currency unit in September 2017 and later began its mining operations in the city of Kanazawa in October, where the company mined multiple cryptocurrencies.
Only last week, the company was already showing its hesitation towards the crypto industry, with DMM.com revealing that its crypto trading app Cointap wouldn’t be launched as planned.
Another one bites the dust: DMM.com follows in GMO Internet’s footsteps
According to Toyo Keizai, DMM.com believes it is not the right time to be trying to attract beginner virtual currency traders, thanks to the current bear market and the large hack of Coincheck that occurred at the beginning of 2018.
DMM.com’s departure from the crypto mining business follows on the heels of Japanese IT giant GMO Internet announcing that it will be pulling the plug on its mining operations. As Finance Magnates reported, last week the company said in a regulatory filing that, as the price of cryptocurrencies continues to take a downturn, the profitability of its cryptocurrency-focused mining chips mirrors the same trend.
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