Cryptocurrency money laundering activities hiked 10X in 2018 – shows Japan Police report

• 7,000 cases related to  money laundering in connection with cryptocurrencies reported in 2018.
• Japan requires all crypto exchanges to be registered with the Financial Services Agency (FSA)

According to Japanese, there were 7,000 cases related to money laundering in connection with cryptocurrencies. This is a tenfold rise in comparison to the 669 cases that had been within a nine-month period in 2017. According to Cointelegraph, the news was published by a local media, The Japan Times.

The increase in the reported cases came after the government directed that all cryptocurrency exchange firms forward all data connected to suspected transactions. The direction took effect in April 2017 and saw at least 7,096 cases reported last year; representing a 960% increase in just nine months.

Some of the 7,000 suspected cases were linked to transactions that had been red flag due to birth dates and manes that were not matching while they had an identity photo. Other cases involved accounts sign-ins and logins from accounts registered in the country but being run from other countries.

Since April 2017, Japan requires all crypto exchanges to be registered with the Financial Services Agency (FSA) and acquire an operating license from the same body. Over the last year, the authority has tightened its regulations and even allowed a self-regulatory body to have an oversight on all cryptocurrency exchange companies.