Japan To Implement Stricter Rules against Money Laundering in Crypto

The Japanese parliamentarians decided to implement tougher anti-money laundering (AML) measures to track the crypto transactions as of June 1.

The Japanese parliament’s decision to enforce the measures came within a framework of bringing the Japanese crypto regulations in line with the global regulations, according to Cointelegraph.

In December, the lawmakers in Japan started revising the anti-money laundry legislation after being described as insufficient by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international financial watchdog.

The new measures of Japan include the Travel Rule, which aims to accurately trace criminal proceeds. Under the Travel Rule, any financial institution which processes a crypto transfer greater than $3,000 has to pass on customer information to the recipient exchange or institution. The data should include the name and address of the sender and recipient and account information.

The Travel Rule was discussed and supported by global leaders in the G7 meeting in May in Japan.

It is worth mentioning that Japan’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency, went for stricting rules on crypto exchanges following the major hacks of the exchanges Mt.Gox and Coincheck.

Earlier this month, a recent study by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic showed that North Korean hackers made Japan the biggest loser of cryptocurrencies over the past years.

Japanese media company Nikkei reported the study, which focused on the amount of crypto seized by North Korean hackers from 2017 to 2022, which described North Korea’s theft of crypto as a national strategy, according to Cointelegraph.

The study found that North Korea’s hackers stole $721 million in crypto from Japan only in this period, representing 30% of the world total of over $2.3 billion.

According to Elliptic, $640 million of crypto was stolen in 2022. In this regard, the Japan External Trade Organization said the $721 million stolen from the country is 8.8 times greater than the value of the North Korean exports in 2021.