Japan Tells $BTC, $ETH, $XRP to Trade In Their Hoodies for Suits 📈

Japan's House of Representatives approved legislation on Thursday, June 11, that would fold cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH) and XRP ($XRP) into the country's Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, treating them as financial products alongside stocks and bonds. The bill now heads to the House of Councillors for final passage and is expected to take effect next year, according to Bloomberg.

The amendment would shift oversight of crypto-asset transactions from the Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, imposing disclosure rules, tighter exchange oversight, insider trading restrictions and stronger penalties for unregistered operators. It would also require crypto-asset transaction business operators to publish information on the assets they handle, while issuers of certain assets would face disclosure requirements when conducting offerings or secondary distributions. Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) said the bill would treat crypto assets as financial products separate from securities.

The framework could open the door to spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Japan. The Japan Exchange Group has set its sights on launching Bitcoin and crypto ETFs by 2027, giving local investors a regulated route to digital-asset exposure beyond crypto exchanges and listed companies with token holdings.

A separate but related tax change is central to the package. Crypto profits are currently taxed under a progressive system reaching up to 55% in Japan. The reform would lower the rate on Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and other cryptocurrencies to a 20% flat rate, in line with the treatment of stocks and bonds, with the tax change expected to take effect in 2028.

The Lower House bill had cleared the Committee on Financial Affairs on June 10, though the House of Representatives bill-tracking page had not yet updated the plenary vote field at the time of writing. The latest parliamentary advance follows months of preparatory signals, including an Asahi Shimbun report in November 2025 that the FSA had decided to apply the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act to crypto assets handled by local exchanges, and FSA materials dated April 2026 outlining the proposed move from the Payment Services Act.