Overview
- Japan’s Financial Services Agency plans to submit a 2026 bill requiring exchanges to hold dedicated reserves to compensate users after hacks, modeled on securities‑firm benchmarks of roughly ¥2 billion to ¥40 billion based on scale.
- The framework would end the de facto cold‑wallet exemption by adding capital backstops and formalize bankruptcy procedures with court‑appointed administrators to return customer assets.
- Exchanges could offset part of the reserve requirement with insurance, and stricter asset‑segregation and rapid‑reimbursement rules are being designed to reduce delays seen after past incidents.
- Regulators are also weighing tighter oversight of third‑party vendors and custodians after breaches tied to outsourced wallet software, moving toward mandatory registration or prior notification for such providers.
- The reserve plan sits within a broader FSA push to reclassify roughly 105 major tokens under securities‑style rules with a proposed 20% flat tax in 2026, as leading asset managers prepare ETFs and investment trusts under the expected regime.