Quoine, a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Tokyo, has announced the expansion of its blockchain fintech services to Canada through its partnership with Canadian fintech startup Blockwave.

The first step would see the launch of a cryptocurrency exchange before the end of 2017. The partnership will leverage on Quoine's expertise in Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards.

Mike Kayamori, CEO and Co-founder of Quoine, said that the firm believes in collaboration with fintech startups in order to drive its mission to democratize finance by growing the crypto economy. In order to achieve this, Quoine has launched QASH token sale.

"We see a lot of opportunity for QUOINE to serve the Canadian market more effectively with a local, trusted partner,” Kayamori said. “We envision QASH to be the token of choice for fintech startups and financial institutions. At a micro level, because we are the issuers of QASH, we will work with fintech startups to structure promotions and incentive schemes for their users and all QUOINE services, including QUOINEX. Our partnership with Blockwave is a first step in that direction for a fruitful collaboration to build up liquidity for cryptocurrency markets in Canada with our high performance platforms, the QASH token, and in-house team expertise."

Last month, Quoine received an official license from the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA) and has also received a comprehensive review from a Big 4 Firm. Going forward, Quoine and Blockwave plan to launch margin-trading features in 2018.

"This year, we expect the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange market to reach an annual volume of CAD $1.5 billion on 275,000 BTC, which is a 10x increase compared to 2016,” Nick Chong, founder of Blockwave, said. “Our goal is to become a major player in the industry, and thanks to our partnership with QUOINE we will bring higher levels of crypto liquidity to Canada and advanced trading features, such as margin-trading, that were previously not available to Canadians.”