GMO Internet Group of Japan to Launch Cryptocurrency Trading App in UK

GMO Internet continues its journey into cryptoland with a new partnership, this time via a subsidiary of a subsidiary in the UK.

The UK arm of the GMO Internet’s brokerage arm (‘Z.com Trade’ and GMO Click Securities respectively) has signed a deal with Finatext UK, a company which sells various financial technology services. Finatext UK is itself a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Finatext Ltd.

The Japanese invasion takes the form of a mobile phone application called Pipster. The utility of this programme will be foreign exchange and cryptocurrency trading. According to the official website the application will offer educational materials, community trading and trade management. It has a planned release date of June 2018 and will be available on Apple and Android phones.

Recently released research indicated that the UK holds the largest number of cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, but only about 1 percent of the trading volume.

GMO Internet is a giant Japanese company that offers products such as online advertising, internet infrastructure, internet security and mobile entertainment. GMO Click Securities has been the world’s largest FX provider by trading volume since 2012. GMO Internet also has its own cryptocurrency exchange, GMO Coin, and it opened a Bitcoin mining operation in September 2017. We reported on the progress of that particular operation in March.

Z.com Trade is regulated by the FCA, the UK’s financial regulator.

Rob Brockington, CEO of Finatext UK, said: “With Z.com Trade’s capacity to provide the best trading technology for retail FX traders, the Pipster app will be able to provide a simplified and smarter trading experience that we believe is essential to engage a new generation of traders.”

Masahiro Funada, CEO of Z.com Trade, said: “I believe that this collaborative initiative, with a reputable fintech firm such as Finatext, is a stepping stone that will enable us to extend our trading services to a wider audience.”