Bitget is winding down services to Japanese residents, halting new registrations from Japan on August 3, 2026, and setting a hard December 31 deadline, after which any remaining open positions will be forcibly liquidated at prevailing prices.
The Timeline and What It Requires
New account registrations from Japanese residents were already halted on August 3.
Starting November 1, 2026, at 11 a.m. JST, accounts identified as belonging to Japan residents move into close-only mode, restricted from opening or adding to positions and losing access to spot trading, futures, P2P trading, convert, earn products, card services, copy trading, and trading bots, while retaining deposit access with limitations and both crypto and fiat withdrawals.
On December 31, 2026, at the same time, any remaining open positions will be forcibly liquidated, and card services will be suspended, though Bitget’s own FAQ states that crypto withdrawals will remain available afterward.
Users who receive a specific notification from the exchange on or after September 17, 2026 will be preliminarily treated as Japan residents under this process. Users who don’t receive that notification around that date won’t be treated as Japan residents by default.
Anyone who believes they have been incorrectly flagged can complete Level 2 identity verification by submitting proof of address, such as a bank statement, utility bill, or tax certificate, that matches their KYC documents to correct this.
Bitget also clarified that this verification can still be completed after November 1 if needed, though the company recommends doing it earlier specifically to avoid any disruption to account access in the meantime.
Why the Timing Isn’t a Coincidence
Bitget has not publicly detailed exactly what triggered the decision, but the timing aligns closely with a legal threshold that made continued non-compliance far riskier.
Japan’s National Diet passed sweeping digital asset legislation on July 15, 2026, reclassifying Bitcoin and 104 other cryptocurrencies as financial instruments under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
While the broader law takes full effect in fiscal 2027, a separate provision raising the criminal penalty for unregistered exchange operators, from a maximum of three years in prison and a ¥3 million fine to ten years and ¥10 million, took effect roughly 20 days after promulgation, landing around August 4 to 5.
An exchange still serving Japanese residents without FSA registration after that point would face a penalty regime roughly triple the previous severity.
This followed a documented pattern of escalating enforcement stretching back more than three years.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency first warned Bitget in March 2023 for operating without registration under the Payment Services Act.
A second warning in November 2024 named Bitget alongside Bybit, MEXC Global, KuCoin, and Bitcastle in near-identical notices, followed by the FSA asking Apple and Google in February 2025 to remove the apps of all five exchanges from Japanese app stores.
In June 2025, Japan’s Kanto Local Finance Bureau separately warned BTG Technology Holdings Limited, the main corporate entity and data controller for the global crypto exchange, over unregistered solicitation of over-the-counter derivatives transactions.
Bitget never obtained FSA registration, and this exit is the outcome of that unresolved gap.
The Broader Market Context
Bitget is not alone in reaching this conclusion. Bybit began phasing out its own Japan-based services earlier in 2026 under similar FSA pressure, having received warnings in 2021, 2023, and 2024.
Japan maintains roughly 28 to 30 FSA-registered domestic exchanges, including bitFlyer, Coincheck, GMO Coin, bitbank, SBI VC Trade, and Binance Japan, though these typically offer a narrower selection of 15 to 30 FSA-approved assets compared to the hundreds available on offshore platforms, along with higher spot trading fees in the 0.10% to 0.15% range versus Bitget’s stated rates as low as 0.01%.
Japan’s current regulatory framework traces back to a 2017 amendment following the 2014 Mt. Gox collapse, which, at its peak, handled more than 70% of global Bitcoin trading, and was tightened further after the 2018 Coincheck hack, in which $530 million in NEM was stolen from a hot wallet.
Bitget ranks fifth among global centralized exchanges by 24-hour trading volume, and held a 6.4% market share of the top 10 exchanges in 2025 with 45.5% year-over-year volume growth, the second-fastest among major exchanges.
The company continues to serve more than 150 million users across more than 150 countries and is currently pursuing licensing arrangements in other jurisdictions.
What Comes Next
Affected users’ most important task is to watch for Bitget’s specific notification, expected on or after September 17, since only having a Japan-linked account will trigger this process. That said, anyone living in Japan may want to consider moving to an FSA-registered domestic exchange, regardless of whether they receive that notification, given that Bitget is exiting the market entirely.
What this means for you: if you are a Japan-based Bitget user, watch for that specific notification, complete Level 2 verification if you believe you have been misidentified, and prioritize closing positions and withdrawing funds well before the November 1 close-only date rather than waiting for the harder December 31 liquidation deadline.
Disclosure: The author trades primarily on Bitget, is an affiliate of the Bitget Builders Program, and a completer of the Blockchain4Youth Learning Hub program.
