Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

The Financial Stability Board has detailed how its member countries regulate crypto assets, who the regulators are, and the scope of their oversight. Most countries have more than one government body monitoring and regulating different aspects of crypto activities. Among the board’s Asian member countries, India is the only one with no legal mandate to directly regulate crypto assets. India Three regulators — the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Ministry of Finance — regularly attend the Financial Stability Board (FSB) meetings and G20 summits. The FSB is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It has listed only the RBI, the country’s central bank, as the regulator of the Indian crypto space, clarifying in a report published Friday: RBI does not have a legal mandate to directly regulate crypto-assets. RBI’s current mandate permits it to assess financia...

  BY Erik Gibbs    Japan has always been a leading country. It embraces new technologies quicker than most others and this has even included cryptocurrencies. A recent discussion on the future of integrated resorts (IR) and crypto in the country reveals that, if it chooses, Japan could become one of the first countries to fully embrace digital currencies as a form of payments at its casinos. Could Japan's IRs accept crypto? The discussion took place during a panel session at the iGaming Asia Congress, which was held this week at Studio City in Macau. The event wraps up today and saw participants involved in the “Spotlight on blockchain and crypto regulation in Asia” talk on Wednesday. During that talk, Japan was singled out for its experience and adoption of crypto, and how these could give it a serious competitive edge in the casino industry if it decides to allow crypto in the country’s casinos and IRs. One of the panelists in the discussion, Bitwork Asia co-founde...

  Matthew Beedham South Korea is preparing to come down hard on cyber-criminals with the launch of a new “task force” specifically aimed at fighting cryptocurrency fraud and fintech-related crimes. The launch comes in specific response to the 800-percent increase in cryptocurrency crimes the country has seen over the last few years, local news outlets reports . In 2016, there were just 53 reported cases of such crimes, but in 2017 this figure rose to 453, and it exploded to 4,591 cases in 2018. Professional investigators and prosecuting bodies from around the country came together earlier this week in Seocho-dong, Seoul to mark the launch of the task force. According to the report, the task force will be able to track accounts suspected of harboring illicit funds, although it has not stated how it plans to do this. Naturally, as it’s a matter of public security, it’s likely to be a closely guarded secret. The task force will also be empowered to share info...

By John Detrixhe As part of Japan’s drive to embrace electronic payments, Mizuho and about 60 other banks have launched a new digital wallet called J-Coin Pay. But contrary to what you may have read about it, it doesn’t use crypto. Mizuho’s new service uses QR codes to process smartphone payments, resembling Alipay and WeChat Pay, the dominant platforms in China. Japan has one of the most cash-intensive economies in the world, and its government is pushing for an electronic overhaul in time for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Digital payments account for about 20% of transactions in Japan—compared with more than 60% in China—and the government aims to double that percentage by 2025 . According to a Mizuho spokesperson, J-Coin doesn’t use cryptocurrency or blockchain in any form. That conflicts with numerous reports going back as far as 2017 suggesting that the bank was researching or planning a digital currency pegged to the Japanese yen (paywall). Perhaps ...

By Aaron Wood   Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony and IT equipment services firm Fujitsu have created an encrypted database for educational proficiency documents, The Asahi Shimbun reports on Feb. 26. The database, which reportedly employs blockchain technology, is used to prevent forgeries of language proficiency documents, which some foreigners purportedly use to receive resident status to study in Japan. Foreigners must submit a Japanese language proficiency certificate to the Immigration Bureau in order to receive resident status to study in Japan . Said certificates can be issued by Japanese educational institutions abroad. Japanese language schools within the country will submit the certificates on behalf of institutions overseas. Illegal copies of the language certificates have reportedly been found in several different countries. The Asahi Shimbun states that students without proper language qualifications can face difficulties i...

By William Suberg The research arm of Japanese technology giant Sony announced it had created a contactless cryptocurrency hardware wallet in a press release Tuesday, Oct. 23. The as yet unnamed device utilizes IC smart card technology popular in Japan to communicate with the Bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptocurrency network. The advantages, according to developers from Sony Computer Science Labs (SCSL), lie in dispensing with the need to attach the wallet to a host device via USB, as is the current standard for the industry. “In addition, it is possible to securely generate and store a private key with a highly reliable tamper-proof module within the IC card,” the release explains. Sony has joined many multinationals in experimenting with blockchain technology in recent years, releasing several solutions and applying for patents related to blockchain hardware. Beyond sending and receiving cryptocurrency, the latest hardware wallet offering is...

By Pawel Kuskowski During the summer, an agent at the US’s Drug Enforcement Administration, Lilita Infante, said the ratio of legal to illegal activity in bitcoin has inverted. Talking to Bloomberg , she said illegal activity is now a problem in about 10 percent of transactions - not the 90 percent she saw five years ago.  Lilita thinks that it is speculation driving the cleaning up of transactions. We’ve also seen, over that five-year period, regulation coming into force, the professionalisation of exchanges and increasing numbers of individuals trading and investing paying attention to the anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) aspects of doing so.  But, even if regulations are in place, there are - as is the way with illegal activity in any industry - things to look out for that will be hidden. Whether you’re making payments in crypto, are involved in initial coin offerings (ICOs) or using any blockchain-based payment processes...

Daniel Palmer After news broke yesterday of yet another hack of a cryptocurrency exchange in Japan, the country's police authority has released figures revealing the rise in such attacks this year. According to a report from The Asahi Shimbun Thursday, the National Police Agency (NPA) has released data for the first six months of 2018 that reveal cyberattacks on crypto wallets and platforms tripled over the same period last year. The NPA said that, through 158 cyber-breaches, hackers had stolen a massive 60.503 billion yen (around $540 million) worth of cryptocurrency. That figure puts the total for January through June 2017 in the shade – a period when $5.9 million in cryptos was stolen in 149 cases of theft. As per the data, the majority of the losses for 2018's first half were stolen from exchange platforms, around $518 million. The remainder – just over $22 million – was taken from individuals' crypto wallets. In what should be a lesson for us all in what not to do...

By Helen Partz A former Deutsche Bank trader has joined Japanese crypto exchange-startup FXcoin Ltd., Bloomberg reports September 3. According to the announcement, Yasuo Matsuda, an institutional trader from Deutsche Bank, will join FXcoin as a senior crypto strategist starting in September 2018. The strategist position includes providing analysis of crypto markets and daily reports on the market’s activity. The newly appointed 49-year old Matsuda worked as foreign-exchange dealer at the German bank from 2012 until this June. FXcoin Ltd., founded in September 2017, is currently seeking regulatory approval from Japan’s financial regulator the Financial Services Agency (FSA) in order to operate “virtual currency-related business.” The startup has reportedly applied with the regulator to exchange cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) under a licensing system that was adopted last year. FXcoin’s founder and CEO Tomoo Onishi is a veteran employee at Deutsche ...

By Tanya Abrosimova The Japanese cryptocurrency industry group considers introducing a ceiling on customer trading volumes, a local outlet reports, citing sources. Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) plans to make a decision on the issue in the nearest future and forward it to the Financial Services Agency. the approval of the official regulator will make the Association recognized as a self-regulatory body in accordance with the payment services law. The proposed limit is supposed to provide better protection for small traders that may suffer heavy losses amid high market volatility. The exchanges will be offered two options: to implement a blanket ceiling which is low enough to ensure safety for customers with limited assets; or customized limit that will take into account investment experience, revenue, cost of assets and age of traders. Cryptocurrency market reaction is muted as the proposed decisions of self-regulatory bodies with unclear legal status are not...

                     By Nathalie Stucky Trading isn’t the only way to acquire crypto. Daily SPA, a Japanese media outlet, has reported on a Japanese man using his company dormitory’s free electricity to mine cryptocurrencies without asking permission. An Extraordinary Income “Virtual currencies are processed cryptographically,” Sora-san, a Japanese man working in a major Japanese manufacturing company explained to Daily SPA. “A miner is the machine that supports this encryption process. If you mine Bitcoin, you can process 12.5 bitcoins in 10 minutes, which would be the equivalent of 10 million yen, (US$ 90,000). If you mine Ether, you can make 3 ether worth 200,000 yen (US$ 1,800) in 10 minutes.” he added. But Sora elected to do things differently than everyone else in order to drastically reduce the costs of mining in Japan. Free Electricity at Japanese Company Dorm Allow...

The deal volume, however, rose 22% to 165 transactions during the period due to increased deal activity on the Internet and computer software segments. By DEEPTI CHAUDHARY Private equity investments in the first half of this year fell by almost 39% in value to $2.8 billion compared with the same period a year ago, according a Thomson Reuters data released on Tuesday. The deal volume, however, rose 22% to 165 transactions during the period on the back of heightened deal activity on the Internet and computer software segments, in continuation of the investment trend seen in 2017 as well. India has been a hub of private equity transactions. The first half of 2014 saw 169 deals worth nearly $2.53 billion. The January to June period of 2015 saw 231 deals worth about $6.9 billion, while the same period in 2016 saw 134 transactions to the tune of nearly $2.3 billion. Investors are optimistic that things will get better in the remaining months of the year, particul...