Japan is urging the world’s regulators to treat cryptocurrencies as strictly as they do banks, adding to the calls for tougher rules following the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX digital-asset exchange.
"Crypto has become this big,” said Mamoru Yanase, deputy director-general of the Financial Services Agency’s Strategy Development and Management Bureau. "If you like to implement effective regulation, you have to do the same as you regulate and supervise traditional institutions.”
FTX’s bankruptcy and fraud charges against Bankman-Fried have battered the crypto sector, highlighting gaps and differences in global digital-asset regulation. Japan’s rules have helped to shield investors, who are poised to be able to withdraw their funds from FTX’s local subsidiary next month.