Japan’s National Police Agency plans to roll out crypto transaction tracking software next year

Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA) is going to develop software for tracking cryptocurrency transactions in the wake of rising crimes related to cryptocurrencies, ETH News reported referring to a report from local outlet NHK.

The agency is reportedly adding around 35 million yen (or around $315,000) to its 2019 fiscal budget, which will be used to fund the project. It will outsource the project development to the private sector.

The NPA plans to introduce the software to the police next year. The software will only extract the necessary transaction information, which the agency can then visualize and use to track the transaction flow.

The software will also display the information of the exchange operator used in the transaction. Bitcoin.com quoted a local media outlet in this regard saying:

“The service target is limited to major currencies such as bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH), and it is expected to be available for use by the National Police Agency, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and the Osaka Prefectural Police Department next fiscal year.”

The report comes amid recent media reports that the country’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) has introduced a stricter screening process for companies seeking to become registered cryptocurrency exchanges.

Recent reports also suggested that Russian financial regulator, Rosfinmonitoring, is also planning to use software to track crypto transactions.