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Japan's FSA, police ask crypto industry group for 11 anti-fraud steps

Japan's FSA, police ask crypto industry group for 11 anti-fraud steps

The request to JVCEA widens Japan's anti-fraud push as 2026 scam losses hit 151.47 billion yen in five months and regulators press exchanges to tighten checks, monitoring and account freezes.

Fact Check
The primary FSA source directly confirms every element of the claim: a joint FSA/National Police Agency request to JVCEA for 11 specific measures, including pre-registering withdrawal destinations, tighter transaction monitoring, and revised withdrawal limits, prompted by rising social-media investment and romance scams. Two independent industry outlets (CoinPost, bitbank) corroborate the same date, parties, count, and substance.
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Summary

Japan's Financial Services Agency and the National Police Agency have asked the Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association, or JVCEA, to press exchanges to adopt tougher anti-fraud controls as scam losses climb and victims of investment, impersonation and romance fraud are increasingly steered into buying crypto and sending it to fraudulent wallets. The Aug. 6 request builds on an earlier 11-step framework that included withdrawal delays after fiat deposits or crypto purchases, withdrawal address pre-registration, waiting periods for newly added addresses and customer-specific withdrawal caps. Regulators also called for stricter identity checks at account opening, clear customer warnings, closer monitoring of unusual logins, suspicious devices and transactions, phishing-resistant multifactor authentication for sensitive actions, name checks between bank remitters and exchange account holders, faster transaction restrictions and account freezes, quicker responses overnight and on holidays, and stronger information sharing with peers and police. Police data show 18,067 fraud cases in the first five months of 2026 with losses of 151.47 billion yen, including 70.04 billion yen from investment scams, 40.32 billion yen from police scams and 20.2 billion yen from romance scams.

Terms & Concepts
  • JVCEA: Japan's self-regulatory body for crypto exchanges.
  • withdrawal address pre-registration: A control that requires users to approve destination wallet addresses before sending crypto off an exchange.
  • phishing-resistant multifactor authentication: A login and verification method designed to withstand credential theft and account impersonation attempts.