Japanese Government May Be Ready to Legalize Initial Coin Offerings

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It is clear that Japan is one of the most active cryptocurrency countries on earth. With the United States and South Korea, Japan integrates the top three podium of countries with the most activity in the crypto market. Now, local legislators have unveiled some guidelines that Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) should follow.

Japan Initial Coin Offering Guidelines

During the last year, ICOs were able to gather an important amount of funds for their projects. According to some reports ICOs moved over $4 billion dollars just in 2017. In 2018, the number is expected to grow.

But that is problematic. A very high amount of ICOs, have been a real fraud. And that’s making worried some local authorities. With clearer regulations and a friendly framework, the number of ICO scams could be reduced substantially.

The SEC has flagged several companies for issuing securities that are unregulated. But Japan may be one of the countries that could settle a global precedent for other states to follow. In the last years Japan has had a very friendly approach towards cryptocurrencies. Without killing ICOs, the proposal allows a comprehensive framework to spread in the country.

By legalizing cryptocurrencies, the world would be able to examine the risks and benefits of the business model. Other measures like anti money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) policies, will be implemented in order to avoid further problems.

At the moment, the rules will be reviewed by the Japanese FSA. If they consider that the rules are adequate, the regulations could be turned into law. Compared to other Asian countries, Japan is very open to cryptocurrencies. South Korea and China have decided to totally ban ICOs and have created strict regulations to the cryptocurrency market.

Japanese Contradictions

In 2017, Japan legalized Bitcoin as a means of payment and as a currency. But some comments made by important government officials are not in line with the decisions taken.

Back in December 2017, when Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were in their best moment, the Japanese Finance Minister said that Bitcoin is not a credible currency. Besides that, he asked to start a debate around bitcoin regulations at the G-20 summit that was held in Buenos Aires.

Taro Aso, Finance Minister of Japan, explained:

“There is no fixed definition on whether it is a currency or not. This issue is a difficult one. It has not yet been proven to be credible enough to become a currency, so I need to watch for a little while more.”

As we explained at CoinStaker, the G-20 countries recommended to follow the FATF standards that regulate money laundering activities. Other important measures could be implemented in June once the FATF regulators will analyse the effect of the standards on the cryptocurrency market.

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