Liquid, a Japanese subsidiary of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, plans to open up withdrawals for users in the country early next year.
In a Dec. 29 blog post, FTX Liquid said that the team was working on a system to enable withdrawals from the web-version of its platform.
Japan-based users will be able to withdraw their assets by mid-February, according to a timeline presented by the Liquid team.
Eligible customers from both FTX Japan and Liquid will first be sent an email with a link to open a Liquid Japan account in January, after which they will be able to check their balance and transfer assets held on FTX Japan to Liquid.
Liquid Group, and its operating subsidiaries, began operating as “FTX Japan” after it was acquired by FTX in March.
“Once again, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers. At our company, the entire company is working together to make preparations so that withdrawals and deliveries can be started as soon as possible,” said the team in a statement.
The announcement comes after an FTX Japan executive told a local media publication last month that the regional exchange was making arrangements to restart withdrawals by the end of the year.
FTX Japan suspended withdrawals on Nov. 10 at the request of Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA). The FSA directed the Japan-based FTX subsidiary to submit a “business improvement plan” that would identify its existing clients and the amount of cryptocurrency they held on the platform.
The FSA requires all Japanese crypto exchanges to keep 95% of their users’ assets in cold wallets as an added security measure – a segregation that likely came to the rescue of users in the country following FTX’s collapse. As of Dec. 5, FTX Japan said it had 3,194 BTC in cold wallets, along with various other cryptocurrencies.
