FSA Asks Japan's Crypto Exchanges to Impose Withdrawal Delays Amid Rising Scams

The Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan has asked crypto exchanges to introduce withdrawal delays and other safeguards in response to increasingly sophisticated scams involving digital assets. The request, made jointly with the National Police Agency, comes as authorities respond to growing losses among crypto exchange users and cases where funds obtained through fraudulent schemes are being transferred to exchange accounts.

The FSA has asked exchanges to restrict crypto withdrawals for a specified period after customers deposit fiat currency or purchase digital assets. Platforms were also requested to require users to pre-register crypto withdrawal addresses and impose a waiting period before newly added addresses can be used.

The proposed safeguards include customer-specific withdrawal limits, stronger transaction and access-environment monitoring, phishing-resistant multifactor authentication, and checks to ensure that the name of a bank remitter matches the crypto account holder's name. The measures are not binding rules, and exchanges should determine how to implement them based on their operations, services, and exposure to misuse.