Overview
- The Financial Services Agency plans to submit a 2026 bill mandating liability reserves for crypto platforms, with required amounts modeled on securities firms’ ¥2–40 billion tiers based on business scale.
- Exchanges could satisfy part of the obligation through insurance, according to reports citing the draft framework under discussion.
- The overhaul would end the cold‑wallet exemption and establish court‑managed procedures to return assets in bankruptcies, alongside stricter asset segregation rules.
- Regulators are weighing preregistration or prior‑notice requirements for wallet‑management vendors after breaches tied to outsourced software, including DMM Bitcoin’s 2024 loss and a recent incident linked to SBI Crypto addresses.
- In parallel, officials are preparing a reclassification that would bring major tokens under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, with local reports pointing to a curated list of about 105 assets and a proposed 20% flat tax, while asset managers like SBI, Nomura, Daiwa and Mitsubishi UFJ ready ETFs and investment trusts pending rule changes.