The newly-appointed financial regulator of the Financial Services Agency, Ryozo Himino, has cautioned against promoting the crypto market claiming this step might not necessarily promote technical innovation, Reuters reports.
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Himino claims Japan should rather focus on issuing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) to prevent the economy from devastating consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Deregulating bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies may not necessarily promote technical innovation, if doing so simply increases speculative trading," Himino added.
He also added Japan is not thinking "of taking special steps to promote cryptocurrencies" any time soon.
Earlier, iHodl reported that the Japanese government plans to include central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in its Honebuto Plan, aimed at economic and fiscal revitalization.
In July, the Bank of Japan, the country's central bank, also announced its intention to start testing a digital yen in order to check the currency's viability from a technical point of view.
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