FTX acquires Japanese crypto exchange Liquid
Japan and Singapore based crypto exchange Liquid Group has announced that it and all of its operating subsidiaries including Quoine Corporation (Cryptocurrency Exchange Business Kanto Finance Bureau Director No. 00002) and Quoine Pte. in Singapore are being acquired by FTX Trading Ltd.
The acquisition is expected to close in March 2022, subject to customary closing conditions being satisfied. No financial terms of the deal were announced.
FTX had earlier lent $120 million to Liquid, in a debt financing closed last August.
Founded in 2014, Quoine was one of the first crypto exchanges to be registered by the FSA in Japan in 2017. In October 2021, Quoine was granted a Type 1 Financial Instruments Business registration by the FSA and continues to offer its customers a platform for derivatives trading. Following FTX’s acquisition of Liquid, Quoine will gradually integrate FTX’s products and services into its own offering, and FTX’s existing Japanese customers will be migrated to Quoine’s platform.
In connection with this acquisition, FTX has also entered into an agreement with Liquid to provide its existing Japanese users with services in compliance with Japanese laws, and will transfer its existing Japanese users to Quoine, with effect from 30 March 2022. Quoine is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liquid and a licensed Japanese crypto-asset exchange and Type I Financial Instruments Business licensee.
FTX and Liquid said they expect to work together to provide products and liquidity to retail and institutional investors in the Japanese and global markets.