Taotao (formerly known as BitARG) is a Japanese crypto exchange which is reported to begin trading of a limited variety of digital currencies in May.

Taotao, which is 40% owned by a subsidiary of Yahoo! Japan, will upon launch trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) with the addition of Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ripple (XRP) as margin positions.

Any interested users are already able to sign up for an account and participate in a promotional giveaway contest.

These plans were initially revealed back in March 2018, when Yahoo! Japan announced that it would acquire a notable stake in the exchange via its subsidiary YJFX.

At the time of the announcement, it was rumoured that the company had made the purchase for a whopping 2 billion yen which roughly converts to the around $19 million.

This move marks the internet search engine giant’s first expansion into the world of cryptocurrency, with Taotao having acquired regulatory approval in order to launch on the Japanese market.

The Japanese government has begun imposing a strict approach to monitoring any new entities seeking to launch crypto exchanges following many infamous hacks placed a negative light upon the cryptocurrency industry.

Despite Japan enacting a licensing initiative back in April 2017, malicious attacks continued to plague the Japanese market. Coincheck, most notably, was the victim of the most significant attack to date, having lost tokens worth over half a billion dollars in January 2018. The exchange has, however, returned to the market after a buyout.

Lastly, earlier this month, new regulations were given the green light by the Japanese government which relate to cryptocurrency margin trading.