Co-Founder Of Bitflyer Kano Will Return As CEO Of Japanese Crypto Exchange

Taking over the leading cryptocurrency exchange in Japan, BitFlyer Holdings Inc., the company’s board of directors has reappointed co-founder Yuzo Kano as chief executive officer, restoring him to his role after a dispute erupted over ownership and management of the company.

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Naoto Hida, a spokesman for Tokyo-based BitFlyer, confirmed that the board of directors approved Kano's proposal for a change in leadership in a shareholders meeting held on Thursday, confirming that Kano's proposal had been approved. A regulatory crackdown in 2019 forced Kano to step down from his top position as BitFlyer's CEO after he owned 40% of the company.

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"We aim to become Asia's number one Web3 company in time for our acquisition by 1 Web3 in June." said Hida on Kano's reappointment. 

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Last month, Kano, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. derivatives and convertible bond trader, said that he was planning to revamp the company in order to gain a public listing and expand abroad, if the company is to expand further abroad. In addition to introducing stable coins, BitFlyer hopes to launch a token issuance operation, as well as potentially allowing the public access to the company’s Miyabi blockchain technology. He has a vision for boosting BitFlyer's business by building a token issuance operation.

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In a global digital asset market dealing with the fallout from Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX meltdown, the leadership change comes at a time when the industry is in turmoil. Several companies, including Kraken and Coinbase Global Inc., have formally announced that they will cease operating in Japan and will wind down most of their local operations. 

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed a lawsuit against Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance Holdings Ltd., alleging that the crypto exchange routinely violates the rules which govern the trading of futures contracts in the United States.

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There had been an ongoing struggle between Kano and the company's current management, along with other shareholders, before Thursday's meeting. In Kano's opinion, the Singapore-based fund ACA Partners was trying to shut him out by convincing a majority of investors to accept their bid to purchase BitFlyer last year. Therefore, Kano quashed the deal to sell BitFlyer to them last year because he suspected the fund was conspiring with current management to shut him out.

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There was a long list of questions that Akihiro Azuma, the chairman of ACA, declined to answer last month when inquiring about the recent developments involving BitFlyer and ACA's attempted acquisition of the company.