The incoming chief of Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) has expressed reluctance to soften rules governing cryptocurrencies.
- As Reuter's reported on Wednesday, Commissioner Ryozo Himino said the regulator was not considering taking "special steps" to promote cryptocurrency trading.
- Himino became the head of the FSA in July when he replaced the previous commissioner, Toshihide Endo.
- Deregulating crypto, he said, would not necessarily advance technical innovation but could increase "speculative" trading.
- Instead, Japan should focus on the viability of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that the country's central bank, the Bank of Japan, is currently exploring.
- In undertaking a CBDC, Japan would need to think "really hard" about whether to issue a digital currency based on the "merits and demerits" in doing so, he said.
- The coronavirus pandemic, the commissioner said, might prompt the faster arrival of a cashless society.