Japan’s Financial Regulator Wants Crypto Industry to ‘Grow Under Appropriate Regulation’

The commissioner of Japan’s financial regulator the Financial Services Agency (FSA) said that the agency wants the cryptocurrency industry to “grow under appropriate regulation,” in an interview with Reuters August 22.

Toshihide Endo, commissioner of Japan’s FSA, told Reuters he sees the agency’s goal for developing the crypto industry as finding a “balance” between consumer protection and technological innovation. The commissioner added:

“We have no intention to curb [the crypto industry] excessively. We would like to see it grow under appropriate regulation.”

In July, the FSA had been considering changing the legal basis for regulating crypto exchanges to oversight by the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), instead of its current legal foundation, the Payment Services Act.

Earlier this month, the FSA published the results of its on-site inspections of a number of cryptocurrency exchange operators, noting that in the inspections it gives “priority to investor protection.”