Asian countries seem to go in different directions when it comes to the regulation of cryptos and blockchain. Two Asian tigers — Japan and China — show drastically distinct approaches to the novel phenomena.
Whereas for the first time in a year Japan has given green light to cyber money exchange, China has become even harsher with blockchain platforms which it used to be relatively neutral with.
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Japan Gives a Chance to Coincheck
Last year January a Japanese cyber money exchange Coincheck experienced one of the largest in the history of a cryptos hacker attack. The exchange was storing users’ cryptos in a hot wallet which allowed intruders to steal 500 million NEM coins. Later it was reported that most of the coins during the investigation had already been laundered.
Since then the company was acquired by Monex Group and saw numerous improvements, according to newsBitcoin.com. Coincheck informed that it perfected six areas of its work to conform with FSA’s expectations. Among them, there are the improvements of management, business tactics, customer safety maintenance, governance support by the board, anti-money-laundering measures, and others.
Finally, on January 11 the Japanese top financial watchdog — the Financial Services Agency — approved the registration of this hack survivor. Therefore, now Coincheck officially is a 17th fully-registered crypto exchange in Japan.
New Coincheck’s «father» Monex Group clarified that the exchange was registered according to the Payment Service Act from January 11. The same act states that all cyber money trading platforms have to be registered with FSA.
The site of the latter demonstrates that Coincheck deals with 9 cyber-coins:
- BTC;
- ETH;
- ETC;
- LSK;
- FCT;
- XRP;
- XEM;
- LTC;
- BCH.
Originally, Coincheck applied for FSA recognition in September 2017. As the agency was checking the platform, the unexpected hack slowed down the approval procedures.
China Cracks Down on DLT Platforms
From the outset, the Chinese government seemed to be more friendly towards blockchain than virtual coins. However, platforms related to the former will also soon experience Chinese scrutiny and hardline stance.
On January 10, just a day before Coincheck’s formal upgrade to an exchange’s level, Chinese Cyberspace Administration promulgated novel regulations regarding unaltered ledger platforms. In particular, they will be obliged to wind up «unwanted» content. Moreover, they will also have to unveil to authorities privately stored data and let them review the identity of users.
All this has been done in order to «promote healthy development» of the DLT industry in the country, according to the government’s press release. The rules are there to protect «national security» as well as the interests of Chinese citizens.
Back in 2017 China proscribed ICOs and ensured domestic cyber money exchanges don’t function in the country.
