Sanae Takaichi, the Prime Minister of Japan, stated she didn’t know anything about the token. Kyodo reported that the FSA is looking into whether unlicensed operators were involved.
A cryptocurrency named after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi temporarily reached a market value of roughly $27.7 million before falling drastically after Takaichi officially denied any connection to the token.
Takaichi said in a post on X that she didn’t know anything about the “Sanae Token” and that neither she nor her office had given it any permission. She said that the explanation was made to stop people from getting the wrong idea.
On February 25, the Solana-based crypto coin momentarily surpassed a market cap of $27.7 million, according to the crypto data tracker Gmgn. After Takaichi said no, its price and market valuation dropped a lot. The token’s market cap was roughly $7 million at the time of writing.
Source: Gmgn
FSA Considers Potential Investigation
Reports say that Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) is thinking about looking into the people who were engaged in the token’s issuance.
Kyodo News said on Tuesday that the agency is thinking about looking into connected operators to make sure the facts are correct. There has been no official announcement of an investigation by the FSA.
The Payment Services Act in Japan says that companies providing crypto asset exchange services must register with the FSA. If you don’t register your business properly, you could get in trouble with the law, especially if there are issues about protecting consumers.
Political Name Tokens Draw Global Scrutiny
During recent speculative market cycles, tokens that reference famous people have appeared in several places.
In the US, tokens that relate to the administration of Donald Trump have often been popular before the administration issued an official token.
The Trump team said on January 17, 2025, that they will be making an official Trump memecoin. The token went up to roughly $73 for a short time before falling drastically. Right now, it trades for about $3.40, which is about 95% less than its peak.
In February 2025, the Solana-based Libra token caused an international crisis in Argentina when President Javier Milei pushed it on X immediately after it came out.
On February 18, 2025, the token quickly shot up to almost $4.50 in just a few minutes, then fell below $0.20 within hours, which led to claims of a pump-and-dump operation.