Yesterday news spewed out from all angles about an acquisition involving Monex and somewhat damaged Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck. Since the announcement, shares in Monex jumped up by 23%, it possibly could have gone higher than this however, Tokyo Stock Exchange rules limit these movements with a 23% cap. The acquisition is said to be valued at several billion Yen and is not a quick fix move for Monex or Coincheck, there is a lot of work to be done by both firms to recover from the hack back in January that saw Coincheck lose $530m. Although it has been over 24 hours since reports started to surface, there has still been no word from either party about this move. This in turn is leading to speculation that highlights that this might just be a rumour after all. It does seem unlikely that it’s just a rumour, considering the calibre of the reports that came out yesterday but overall there is not a lot of movement online, posing questions about the legitimacy of the reports in the first place. As we mentioned yesterday, if this does go ahead Monex will have a lot of work to do and I do think the already tight Japanese exchange regulations will take hold of Monex’s Coincheck straight away, increasing the workload but overall it would be a good move for both sides. Especially considering that these rumours have already led to a huge increase in Monex shares, again, reinforcing the idea that this is not a rumour. Why are Monex and Coincheck hesitating in making an announcement? Well, perhaps they are waiting for the state of the markets to balance back out after the dreadful first quarter. Obviously, any take over of this size will have a profound effect on the rest of the markets so maybe they are holding on sharing any news until they believe the time is right – I’m not sure how they will know the time is right, but I guess they pay people to make those sorts of decisions for them. Above all, it’s a shame this hasn’t been confirmed yet, a lot of people are interested, if they leave it too long that interest is at risk of dwindling out. We’ll try our best to keep you updated as news comes in but for now, it’s all a bit hazy.