Japan will tighten the fight against money laundering through cryptocurrencies

Japanese authorities are introducing new rules designed to toughen the fight against money laundering through cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Japanese government intends to tighten the fight against illegal money laundering using cryptocurrencies. According to Nikkei, Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges will be required to hand over customer data, names and addresses when moving funds from one exchange to another. These measures will enable the tracking of monetary transactions of those involved in illegal activities.

According to the publication, the amendments will be considered as part of the Money Laundering Prevention Act at a meeting on October 3. If approved, they would be implemented in May 2023.

Last spring, the Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA) was already planning to implement FATF guidelines for local crypto-companies. This is a text from project CryptoDeFix. The changes would require virtual service providers to provide transaction data.