Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has proposed stricter rules for the crypto industry.
On Tuesday, a report by the Financial Services Agency (FSA) proposed the repositioning of cryptocurrencies from the present-day Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA). This would unify the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies with the one applied for securities and at the same time, offer better safeguards for investors.
The authority pointed out that a lot of issues in crypto trading, for example, those related to fraud and liquidity, are already controlled under the FIEA, hence, it is only logical to treat them alike and use the same regulation pole to perform enforcement.
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According to the report, key issues in the sector include vague or misleading white papers, false disclosures, unregistered businesses, scams, limited investor risk tolerance, and security weaknesses within exchanges.
“it may be appropriate to address the crypto assets using the mechanisms and enforcement of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.”
FSA
The report is not legally binding. It was drafted by the FSA secretariat as an internal briefing to present policy ideas to the Financial System Council, an advisory body to Japan’s financial minister. The government will ultimately decide whether to adopt new rules. The document underlined crypto’s growing role in Japan’s economy, noting that more than 12 million accounts have been opened at domestic exchanges, with user deposits exceeding 5 trillion yen ($33.7 billion) — nearly one account for every 10 people.
Japan hosted the WebX 2025 conference that brought together global leaders in blockchain and digital finance. The event, one of Asia’s largest gatherings for the crypto industry, featured a panel discussion moderated by Jake Stolarski of Neurochain with speakers from Bit2Me, Blockvalue, and Ripple, and was covered by CoinMedium as a media partner.
