Japan's National Police Agency is to fund development of new software to help track individuals behind illicit crypto transactions.
According to a news report from NHK on Thursday, the NPA will budget 35 million yen for 2019 to fund creation of the product - outsourcing technological development of the software to the private sector.
The NPA said the software will track the flow of blockchain transactions flagged as suspicious and "Visualize and locate" the individuals sending or receiving the cryptocurrency.
The effort apparently comes in response to the increasing number of suspected criminal cases in Japan that involve cryptocurrency.
Given the anonymity of blockchain transactions, police forces in the country are facing difficulties when conducting further investigations.
Early this year, the NPA disclosed it had received 669 reports of suspected money laundering from Japanese crypto exchanges in just eight months of 2017, as reported by CoinDesk.
Further, according to an annual reported revealed by the agency in March, hackers stole at least $6.2 million-worth of cryptocurrencies from Japanese users' exchange and wallet accounts in 2017.
The cryptocurrency industry in Japan also took a hit in January after the Coincheck exchange reported a $520 million hack, which prompted calls from regulators to implement better crypto anti-money laundering and security measures.
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies.
CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.
Japanese Police to Fund Crypto Criminal Tracking Tool
Published on Aug 31, 2018
by Coindesk | Published on Coinage
Coinage
Recent News
View All
Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin's Run, Uniswap's Hemorrhaging Value, Anchorage's Banking Bid
Bitcoin is nearing all-time highs in price and market cap last set three years ago.
Japan's megabanks to lead experiment with digital yen
We have, in order, Cheese Bank with a $3.3 million theft, Akropolis with its $2 million loss, Value DeFi with a whopping $6 million exploit and finally Origin Protocol's loss of $7 million.
Number of new Bitcoin addresses spikes amid growing FOMO
Japan's three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen.
Not just Wall Street: Quant trader explains why Bitcoin price is going up
Sam Trabucco, a quantitative trader at Alameda Research, believes four general factors are pushing up the price of Bitcoin.