Japanese brokerage firm Monex Group applies to join Facebook’s Libra

Japanese online brokerage and owner of Coincheck cryptocurrency exchange Monex Group has reportedly applied to join the Libra Association.

At the company’s Q2 result meeting today, Monex president Oki Matsumoto announced that the company was applying to join Facebook’s stablecoin project ‘Libra,’ two news sources CoinDesk reports.

Matsumoto reportedly said that the company will take its decision to join Libra once its application undergoes a primary review, slated at the end of the summer.

The move from Monex follows recent leadership changes at the firm. Hiroshi Goto resigned as the executive director of Coincheck and assumed the role of executive director and Head of Operations division at Monex.

This reportedly marks the first time that a Japanese company has expressed its interest to join the 27-member strong Libra Association. Existing members include the likes of Mastercard, PayPal, Andreessen Horowitz, Visa, eBay, Coinbase, Xapo and others.

Companies interested in joining the association have to reportedly shell out $10 million. Earlier this week, Visa CEO Alfred F. Kelly Jr. had clarified that the current members of the Libra Association have only "expressed interest” and have not officially joined the project.

More recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reaffirmed the social network's commitment to the cryptocurrency project, saying that they will spend “however long it takes” to address the concerns of all regulators and experts.

Earlier in April, reports suggested that Monex Group is considering adding cryptocurrencies to its offerings for retail clients. The firm’s brokerage unit was reportedly planning to add cryptocurrencies to its offerings for retail clients in collaboration with Coincheck.