The post XRP currently dominates Japan’s cash inflows, and a new 20% tax rate is about to lock that advantage in appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Japan’s Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama stood at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Jan. 5 and declared 2026 a “digital year,” framing traditional exchanges as the primary gateway for investors to access cryptoassets and ETF-like products. As Elliptic noted, she pointed to US spot Bitcoin ETFs as a model, explicitly stating what Japan’s Financial Services Agency had been building toward: crypto was being pulled into the same institutional channels as equities and funds. The timing matters because the policy architecture behind that statement, consisting of tax cuts, stablecoin licensing, and a wholesale reclassification of 105 cryptoassets as financial products, creates a clear regulatory pathway for institutional crypto exposure in Asia. Additionally, buried in the mechanics of that shift is a second-order effect: XRP sits at the center of Japan’s existing crypto infrastructure, positioning it to capture a disproportionate share of the institutional flows these reforms are designed to unlock. Policy stack Japan’s FSA finalized plans to reclassify 105 major cryptoassets as “financial products” under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, moving them out of the lighter Payment Services Act regime. Exchanges listing these assets face issuer-style disclosure, volatility, and blockchain risk reporting, and insider trading restrictions. The bill goes to the 2026 ordinary Diet session. The same package reduces the effective tax rate on eligible crypto income from as high as 55% to a flat 20%, aligning crypto taxation with that of stock investments. Related Reading Japan’s 20% crypto tax sets a new bar in Asia, pressuring Singapore and Hong Kong as retail costs fall Japan’s sweeping crypto reclassification could redefine Asia’s regulatory power balance. Nov 23, 2025 · Andjela Radmilac The FSA also advanced a yen-pegged stablecoin initiative that resulted in Japan’s first licensed JPY stablecoin, JPYC, while exploring ways to allow local banks to trade cryptocurrencies, much as they…

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Filed under: News - @ January 7, 2026 11:26 am