Coincheck Launches 2x Crypto CFDs Six Years After Ending Margin Trading

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck has staged a comeback in crypto derivatives more than six years after closing its previous margin product.

London's trading industry is coming home!

The company’s new leveraged trading service, “Coincheck Leverage, is not a revival of Coincheck’s former lending-based margin model. It operates under the regulatory model of contracts for difference (CFDs).

How Coincheck Leverage Works

Coincheck began rolling out the service to eligible individual customers on September 24. The available pairs are BTC/JPY, ETH/JPY, and XRP/JPY, and users can take both long and short positions.

Retail clients must provide margin equal to 50% of their position, limiting leverage to twice the deposited amount. The service supports market, limit and stop orders and trades around the clock outside maintenance periods.

The CFDs settle gains and losses in cash without transferring or lending the underlying cryptocurrency. Coincheck disclosed plans for the product in Coincheck Group’s annual report.

The service is now offered under the company’s Type I Financial Instruments Business registration, number 3540, with the Kanto Local Finance Bureau. Japan requires this registration for businesses conducting over-the-counter crypto derivatives transactions.

Spot and CFD Trading Share One App

Coincheck has integrated the CFDs into its existing application. Customers can switch between spot and leveraged trading without downloading a separate app and transfer Japanese yen between the two services. The accounts remain separate.

Customers must already have a Coincheck spot account and open an additional Coincheck Leverage account, which requires a suitability assessment.

The CFDs are initially available through version 5.0.0 or later of the iOS app, with access expanding gradually among eligible users. According to the launch announcement, Android and web versions are planned before the end of 2026, while corporate accounts are scheduled to receive access from 2027.

Previous Product Relied on Borrowing

Coincheck’s former margin product used a different structure. Customers borrowed yen or crypto assets for trading within the platform, with Coincheck connecting participants seeking to lend and borrow yen or Bitcoin.

The exchange stopped accepting new borrowing in May 2017 and closed the remaining service on March 13, 2020. Existing customers were instructed to repay their outstanding positions before the closure.

Coincheck did not disclose a reason for ending the product. At the time, it said only that it was considering an alternative service.

The new CFD offering provides leveraged price exposure through a regulated derivatives account rather than reviving the previous borrowing model.