Japan 's financial regulator is preparing to crack down on a number of cryptocurrency exchanges for not doing enough to prevent money laundering or protect customers . The Financial Services Agency is targeting the remaining unregistered exchanges operating in the country , along with several of those that have been licensed . Inspections of the businesses are being carried out , following an incident in January when $ 550 m was stolen from hacked Tokyo - based exchanges . The inspections target several of the country's 16 licensed exchange operators and all 16 operators not yet officially registered with authorities. Exchanges found to have violations will be required to make improvements and could be ordered to suspend operations .
Japan 's financial regulator is preparing to crack down on a number of cryptocurrency exchanges for not doing enough to prevent money laundering or protect customers . The Financial Services Agency is targeting the remaining unregistered exchanges operating in the country , along with several of those that have been licensed . Inspections of the businesses are being carried out , following an incident in January when $ 550 m was stolen from hacked Tokyo - based exchanges . Exchanges found to have violations will be required to make improvements and could be ordered to suspend operations .