Bitcoin Forum

With the emergence of Cryptocurrency, Blockchain technology and the creation of altcoins, there is still another issue countries are plagued with. This has to do with the money laundering problem.

Currently, there is a tremendously high increase of suspected money laundering that has been connected to Cryptocurrencies. The issue has been reported to the police.

And, according to the National Police Agency of Japan, more than seven thousand cases have been reported over time.


Read more  : https://paperblockchain.com/japans-issue-of-money-laundering-linked-to-cryptocurrency/ (https://paperblockchain.com/japans-issue-of-money-laundering-linked-to-cryptocurrency/)

I would understand if i would able to read 10-30 cases of laundering cases but with this one do have outstanding 7000 cases of this issue which is really high and rampant.

Knowing that Japan is positive towards cryptocurrencies and the adoption had been made in the past until the present.This isnt only applicable on Japan but on all countries worldwide.

Japan is really against this criminal activity from what I heard since the past year they are one of the two countries who have forced exchanges to delist anonymity based cryptocurrencies such as Monero and Zcash. Even though they had sucessfully delist these cryptocurrencies it hadn't stopped money laundering in the country as what they are doing is not enough they have even worsen their situation by adding another crypto exchange in their country.

As always, this isn't a cryptocurrency problem - rather, it is a greedy banker and criminal problem:

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180901/p2a/00m/0na/011000c - Japanese bank launders just shy of 2 billion yen

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/business/mufg-bank-japan-money-laundering.html - Japan's largest bank, having already been fined hundreds of millions of dollars due to money laundering, is being investigated again

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-banks-moneylaundering/japan-fsa-prods-banks-to-accelerate-anti-money-laundering-steps-sources-idUSKCN1G712O - Japan's banks facing international sanctions due to money laundering

I have no doubt this story will be blown way out of proportion and lead to more "bitcoin is only used by criminals" nonsense. The fact is, as it has been many times before, that fiat banks and institutions have been laundering money for decades, and in far higher quantities that anything laundered via cryptocurrency.

What exactly is "tremendously high increase"? Money laundering is a problem, and a growing one it might appear, but as more research is carried out, and more enforcement, this may only be a case of more reporting and more captures being recorded, rather than an actual increase. This probably also explains the rise of cases ten-fold.

The report even has a typo of 2027, so I doubt the veracity or accuracy of this. It seems to me these are merely reports to the authorities (or alert rather), which isn't any evidence of wrong-doing. If the report's true that many of the flagged txs also had the same photo ID, then maybe these are all linked to the same entity or a few entities.

@ETF: I've wondered the same, but I suspect blockchain analytics is now a lot more sophisticated than we think, and enforcement isn't letting on.

they must be using some very vague and unproven threshold for "suspected money laundering" to have such a high number of outstanding domestic cases. i wonder if using any privacy methods at all might land you on this list.

people celebrated japan's regulation attempts, but everything they do smacks of overregulation, overreach, and a general lack of understanding of how crypto and markets work.

It is just incomprehensible to me how in Japan they began to record cases of laundering of dirty money using cryptocurrency. In general, in my opinion, cryptocurrency does not really matter here. And before the cryptocurrency laundered dirty money, and without it it will do.

Wasn't all that KYC policy shit about fighting against money laundering?Can you launder money via crypto,if your crypto exchange account is verified with your real identity?Or perhaps,the money launderers aren't using crypto exchange platforms at all?

That is not new in fact many are already claiming that they are doing it. They are brave to claim this because it is difficult to track money laundering online using altcoins. I guess cryptocurrency is a new way on doing money laundering. Anyway, this activity could add lively market thus letting as getting the chance to earn in trading or even just by holding then selling in the near future.

Japan -- the people and its government -- has been a big supporter of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general in the past many years and this country even pioneered in establishing platforms, infrastructures, regulations and things necessary for the market to flourish but the government will never allow illegal activities to be conducted behind this new technology that is why law enforcement has to be done at all levels all the time -- and the whole cryptocurrency industry should be cooperating with the government as cryptocurrency is not really meant for criminals but for all law-abiding citizens.

Most of the money laundering cases involve funds being funneled through the banks. Crypto laundering is just peanuts compared to what happens in the regular banks

It seems like this incident happened on purpose in a country that is in favor of cryptocurrencies, which is Japan. Banks and institutions don't like the crypto ecosystem where money flows freely and they try to release bad news in order to affect the decentralized ecosystem negatively.