Japanese e-commerce giant DMM.com is reportedly exiting the cryptocurrency mining business due to “deteriorating profitability,” local media reported. This news follows an announcement by another major Japanese company, GMO Internet, that it will no longer manufacture and sell mining machines, citing similar reasons.
Also read: Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations
Out of the Mining Business
The withdrawal process such as the sale of the machines will go over to the first half of 2019.
The company announced the establishment of its virtual currency division in September last year and began mining operations in Japan’s Kanazawa city in October. Multiple cryptocurrencies were mined “such as bitcoin, ethereum, [and] litecoin,” Toyo Keizai detailed.
Launching with ambitious goals for its mining division, DMM announced at the time that it “will operate a mass-scale, made-in-Japan quality, mining farm whose operating size will be unmatched by any of the domestic operators.” It also planned to rank in the “top three of the world’s mining farm companies in terms of scale.” DMM also created a “research and development specialty lab” for crypto mining called DMM Mining Labo.
Showroom Closing
However, Toyo Keizai reported that DMM had underestimated security concerns and quoted the company explaining:
I would like users to experience the extraordinary mining site in their lives. From such thought DMM opened a part of the [mining] farm to the public, but this was canceled in early June. It is because it is judged that ensuring security is difficult. Overseas, theft of virtual currency mining machines has been steady, and [there were attempts] even at the DMM’s Kanazawa farm.
Last week, DMM announced that its crypto trading app Cointap will not be launched as planned. According to the publication, the company believes that attracting beginner crypto traders has become difficult due to the decline in cryptocurrency prices and the hack of Coincheck exchange in January.
Attempts to contact DMM.com for comments have not yielded any results at press time.
What do you think of DMM shutting down its cryptocurrency mining business? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, DMM.com Inc., and GMO Internet.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
The post Japan’s DMM Exiting Cryptocurrency Mining Business appeared first on Bitcoin News .