Coming as early as Q2! Japan's SBI will launch the Japanese Yen stablecoin "JPYSC".

Japan’s financial group SBI Holdings and blockchain company Startale Group announced today (27th) that their jointly developed Japanese yen stablecoin has been officially named “JPYSC.” The stablecoin is primarily supported by trust banks, targeting institutional and cross-border applications. It is scheduled for official launch in the second quarter of this year, pending regulatory approval.

According to a statement from Startale, JPYSC is Japan’s first yen stablecoin designed with a trust architecture. Its issuance and asset custody will be handled by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank, fully compliant with Japan’s digital asset regulations. SBI VC Trade, SBI Group’s cryptocurrency exchange, will serve as the main circulation platform, while Startale will lead technology development and blockchain infrastructure integration.

The statement notes that, in a market currently dominated by dollar-pegged stablecoins, launching a regulated, trust-supported yen stablecoin will help enhance the yen’s role and visibility in the digital financial ecosystem, providing a compliant alternative for the market.

Both parties revealed that JPYSC has not yet gone live but has already attracted preliminary discussions with multiple institutions and companies, reflecting growing market demand for yen stablecoins in payments, financial management, and cross-border settlement scenarios.

The statement added that a trust-supported model helps strengthen governance, oversight, and operational security, facilitating the deployment of stablecoin applications within a regulated environment.

It also mentioned that JPYSC aims to enable interoperability between traditional financial infrastructure and various blockchains. Startale Group CEO Sota Watanabe emphasized that this yen stablecoin is not just a means of daily payment but will play a central role in a “fully on-chain world.”

He further pointed out that in the future, automated payments between AI agents and the revenue distribution of tokenized assets will require stable, compliant, and programmable digital currencies as foundational infrastructure, and these scenarios will soon become reality.

On June 1, 2023, Japan officially implemented the revised Payment Services Act, defining stablecoins as a new “electronic settlement method,” lifting the ban on the circulation of foreign stablecoins within Japan. The law also stipulates that any business involved in the circulation and trading of stablecoins (digital currencies pegged to fiat currency) must obtain a government-issued license.