Bitget to Exit Japan, Close All Positions by Dec. 31

• Bitget will stop serving Japan-based users entirely, with all remaining open positions forcibly closed by December 31.
• New account registrations from Japan residents stopped on August 3, and existing accounts move to close-only mode on November 1 unless users complete address verification by then.
• The exit follows repeated warnings from Japan’s Financial Services Agency, dating back to March 2023, over Bitget operating without local registration.

Bitget is walking away from the Japanese market entirely, telling users it will close every remaining open position by the end of the year as it works to align with the country’s tightening crypto rules.

A Retreat Years in the Making

Bitget isn’t reacting to a surprise. Japan’s FSA has been warning the exchange since March 2023 over operating without local registration, then escalated in November 2024 by naming Bitget alongside KuCoin, Bybit and MEXC in a joint notice. Apple and Google pulled its app from Japan’s stores months later, though existing users kept access through the web.

This is different from a company blindsided by new rules. It’s one that had three years of warnings and chose an exit once Japan’s mid-July law reclassifying crypto as a financial instrument raised the cost of staying unregistered. Bitget hasn’t said whether it weighed registering instead, framing the withdrawal only as a compliance step.

What It Means for Users and the Wider Market

For Japan-based traders, the timeline is specific. Accounts flagged as Japan-resident from September 17 onward move into close-only mode on November 1 unless Level 2 identity verification, including a proof-of-address document, is completed first. 

Anything still open on December 31 gets force-closed automatically, though deposits and withdrawals stay open past that date. Bitget has not disclosed how many users or how much trading volume the Japan market represents for the exchange.

The move fits a pattern rather than standing alone. Bybit went through a comparable wind-down of its Japan business, phasing out registrations and existing accounts under the same regulatory pressure, and other offshore platforms named in the FSA’s 2024 warning face the same choice: register locally or leave. 

For the broader market, this is less a bitcoin-moving event than a signal about where regulatory pressure is landing. Japan’s shift toward treating crypto as a financial instrument is pushing unregistered offshore exchanges out one by one, and that pattern is likely to keep shaping which platforms stay available in tightly regulated markets, regardless of what any single coin does this week.

Bitget is currently ranked among the leading global exchanges by trading volume, so the exit is unlikely to move liquidity meaningfully on its own. The bigger question for the industry is whether more platforms follow the same script Bybit and now Bitget have used, choosing an orderly wind-down over the cost and scrutiny of pursuing full local registration.

Tags: Exchange, Regulation

Source:

Bitget: Important Notice: Important Information for Residents of Japan

Yahoo Finance: Japan FSA Steps Up Crypto Regulation with Warnings to Bybit and Others