Japan to review its currency laws


The Japanese government is going to prevent Russia from evading sanctions by revising its legislation regarding crypto exchanges.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, told Reuters news agency that the cabinet will send a revised version of the foreign exchange and foreign trade law to parliament.

The updated legislation should allow the government to apply the same law to crypto exchanges as it does to banks. Crypto exchanges will be required to check whether their clients are Russians who have fallen under sanctions. The new rules will target “fraudulent or structured transactions to circumvent U.S.-imposed sanctions.”

According to Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, Japan’s regulators are closely monitoring the calculations of the Bank of Russia financial messaging system with crypto assets to “ensure the effectiveness of sanctions.” Some experts are sure that the Russian Federation will not be able to use cryptocurrencies to circumvent all the sanctions imposed, however, there are many ways in which Russian individuals and legal entities can easily overcome some of the restrictions.

Earlier, Chainalysis co-founder and chief strategy officer Jonathan Levin told Bloomberg that the analytics company has not yet found conclusive evidence that Russians are indeed switching to cryptocurrencies due to sanctions. According to him, citizens of the Russian Federation use digital assets because of their potential benefits.

Recall that last week, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Nellie Liang said that the cryptocurrency industry is not yet sufficiently developed to help Russia successfully evade sanctions.

Source: Bits

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