January 2019 is over already.

Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay releasing my monthly message.

As you probably know, the first Bitcoin block, the Genesis Block, was created on January 4,, 2009, 10 years ago. It is astounding to think that it has been 10 years since this historic birth. The years have gone by quickly.

Bitcoin is sometimes referred to as “digital gold”. Gold built creditworthiness over a long period of time, from as early as 5,000 BC until the present day.

Compared to that, Bitcoin is still only 10 years old. For Bitcoin believers, the time is still to come.

On January 26 last year, a Japanese exchange was hacked for almost USD500 million. A year has passed since this malicious event.

Following such a devastating event, the virtual currency industry has been working hard to prove its worth over the last year.

In my opinion, 2017 was a year of enthusiasm and 2018 was a year of price correction. This year I think real and useful cryptocurrencies will survive and steadily grow.

At Liquid, March is going to be a key month for us. There are various developments coming, such as further strengthening our platform, announcing new products and features, and providing token utility. Liquid staff are working tirelessly to make this happen.

The virtual currency industry has had something of a negative image recently, so I decided to get myself out there and spread some positivity.

I appeared on a Japanese show called Virtual Currency News recently to talk about the latest cryptocurrency developments. The first episode is now available on their Youtube channel.

In other news, in the Exchange Security Report issued by ICO Rating, Liquid is ranked the highest among all the exchanges currently operating in Japan. We will continue our efforts to ensure Liquid maintains the highest possible security standards.

Here’s a reaction quote from me published by PRTimes:

Liquid is focused specifically on security and compliance and customer asset protection, and Liquid was recognized as the most secure virtual currency exchange in Japan by Exchange Security Report V 2.0. This is a wonderful result that reflects consistent drive and daily efforts. We will continue to make efforts to become the world's safest and secure virtual currency exchange. Liquid will continue to lead the Japanese domestic and global virtual currency markets while giving top priority to compliance and customer asset protection so that customers can use Liquid safely.

Thank you to the Liquid community for continuing to believe in our vision. We are rapidly closing in on our goals.

A note from Liquid Head of CEO Office Katsu Konno

January has passed by too quickly, already we are over a month into 2019.

As usual, it was a very busy month.

Transaction volume has been steady, and as an exchange for legal currencies and virtual currencies, we continue to maintain our top global position.

Withdrawal speed improvement

We are introducing technology to provide much faster crypto withdrawals than we have been able to offer previously, while maintaining security. You will hear more details on this in the near future once we have finished testing.

We have also started a trial for withdrawals on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays for certain cryptocurrencies.

AMA

In case you missed it, I did an AMA in the Japanese telegram at end of January. You can read the english summary here.

I was able to communicate with the community for the first time in a while and I really enjoyed it.

I hope to continue to do it regularly in the future.