Uniform global curbs on cryptocurrency trading may be hard: BOJ official

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TOKYO (Reuters) – Policymakers around the world may debate ways to deal with the volatility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but imposing global, across-the-board regulations on their trading won’t be easy, a senior Bank of Japan official said on Thursday.

South Korea and China have tightened regulations but Japan wants to ensure any rules that it adopts won’t hinder innovation, said Hiromi Yamaoka, head of the Japanese central bank’s division on payment and settlement systems.

“There’s undoubtedly growing interest among global policymakers on how to deal with cryptocurrencies,” Yamaoka, whose division also oversees cryptocurrencies, told Reuters.

“Japan’s approach would be to think about how to curb excesses without discouraging innovation,” he said.

Yamaoka said while there were some “speculative moves” in the cryptocurrency market, it was hard to say whether bitcoin was experiencing a bubble because cryptocurrencies have no underlying assets to measure their real value.