About Zaif

Zaif is a Japanese centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) that obtained one of the earliest licenses from the Japanese Financial Services Agency (JFSA). It held the rank of the 35th largest cryptocurrency exchange by turnover as of September 2018. However, on September 14, 2018, the exchange's hot wallets fell victim to a hack, resulting in the theft of approximately $60 million worth of cryptocurrency.

Following the breach, Zaif halted operations and entered into a bailout agreement with FISCO, a Japanese brokerage, which injected 5 billion yen ($44.675 million) in financial assistance. In November, FISCO Digital Asset Group Co. Ltd. acquired the company.

Zaif was founded by Takao Asayama, CEO of Tech Bureau, which operated Zaif until its acquisition by FISCO in late 2018. At the time of publication, Ryuji Yagi was leading the platform, alongside other key members of the management team.

Zaif made its debut on June 16, 2014, and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. While the platform primarily caters to Japanese users, it may not accept applications for account opening from customers residing overseas.

Zaif supports a limited selection of digital assets, with BTC/JPY being the most active trading pair on the exchange. The platform imposes competitive fees, charging 0.10% for takers and offering free of charge trading for makers in its spot trading market. Additionally, users can engage in margin trading with leverage of up to 7.7x on the platform.