Wants To Stop Organized Crime, Japan's Ministry Of Justice Plans To Confiscate Illegal Crypto

JAKARTA – The Japanese Ministry of Justice is reportedly planning to confiscate illegally obtained cryptocurrencies. This is meant to stop organized crime taking place in the virtual world.

According to local media reports Nippon, the current law on organized crime penalties does not include the treatment of illegally acquired crypto assets. Which basically can be a loophole for criminals to get around the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) guidelines.

This month, the ministry reportedly immediately consulted with the Legislative Council to draw up a regulatory framework that would allow the seizure of illegal crypto assets. On the other hand, the regulatory framework will also treat digital assets as physical assets such as property, movable property, and others.

Last week, Japan became a country with significant economic growth that passed a law protecting investors from the risk of stablecoins. Despite the stablecoin Terra collapse, the Japanese Parliament recognizes stablecoins in general as digital money and plans to enforce legal status.

In addition, the Japan Financial Services Agency is also expected to soon introduce new regulations for stablecoin issuers.

According to the BeInCrypto report, as crypto regulations tighten, Asian countries are also opening up for business in this sector. For example, Japan's Financial Services Agency and the Ministry of Finance have warned of severe penalties on crypto exchanges that try to evade global sanctions imposed on Russia at the start of the war with Ukraine.

Meanwhile, one of Japan's largest brokers, Nomura Holdings, has offered Bitcoin in the country. Global crypto exchange FTX has also recently expanded into Japan while estimating a potential market size of nearly 1 trillion US dollars in the area of Japanese cryptocurrency trading.

In March, Japan-based Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings (SuMi) also announced a collaboration with Japanese crypto exchange, Bitbank, to manage digital assets for its clients. Last year, a consortium of about 70 Japanese companies planned the launch of a yen-based cryptocurrency this year, Reuters reported.