A Japanese financial watchdog has apparently pushed cryptocurrency trading platforms operating in the country to stop allowing customers to trade in several privacy coins.
According to reports[1], Japan's Financial Services Agency[2], a regulatory body, is informally encouraging cryptocurrency exchanges in the country to delist Monero, Zcash, and Dash, all of which are so-called privacy coins.
Sources described as "close to" the agency apparently said that the move comes in response to concerns over money laundering and other possible illegal uses of the cryptocurrencies. The trade and ownership of privacy coins are, by and large, harder to track than those of other digital assets like bitcoin or Ether.
The FSA's campaign against these more anonymous cryptocurrencies may be at least a month old. When Coincheck[3], an exchange that lost over 500 NEM tokens in a January heist, resumed trading in March, it did so for all the tokens it had previously supported with the exception of Monero, Zcash, and Dash.
The Japan Times wrote[4] that the exchange's initial decision to list these coins had been one of several reasons that the FSA had not yet granted it official approval, signaling that the agency's apprehensions around privacy coins date back to March, if not earlier. Several weeks after declining to relist the tokens, however, the cryptocurrency trading hub is still awaiting licensure.
At a working group convened by the FSA earlier this month, one attendee reportedly recommended that it be "seriously discussed as to whether any registered cryptocurrency exchange should be allowed to use such currencies." The agency has also apparently told other exchanges that listing any of the three tokens could hinder their chances of approval.
In response to the news,
