MONEX'S *COINCHECK* MULLS -1.

JAPANESE online brokerage Monex mulls takeover of crypto exchange Coincheck.

Japanese Money Group Inc said on Tuesday it was considering buying Coincheck Inc, the  cryptocurrency exchange hit by a high profile $530 million theft of digital currency earlier this year.

Monex did not provide any further details in a statement, but the Nekkei business daily earlier on Tuesday said the deal could be worth several billion yen and that an announcement was likely this week.

When contacted for comment and confirmation of the Nikkei report, Coincheck told Reuters via email that it hadn't released any information on such an offer.

If completed, the Deal would allow Monex to access Coincheck's trading platform and customer base.

The exchange, which grew rapidly last year amidst frenzied cryptocurrency market, has not given details of how many customers it has.

It would also bring another mainstream financial services operator into the frontier cryptocurrency  trading market in Japan.

The move by Monex, Japan's No.3 online brokerage by customer accounts, would follow a similar foray by its larger rival SBI Holdings Inc.

SBI last year obtained a license to run cryptocurrency exchange, but in February postponed plans to do so is sought to bolster the security of its exchange.

In January, messaging app operator Line Corp said it has applied for approval to run a cryptocurrency exchange through its financial arm which currently provides money transfer and payment services to 40 million users.

The research and publishing continues to Part 2.