Japanese fintech company JPYC Inc. plans to launch Japan’s first stablecoin by this autumn.
The Tokyo-based firm received approval from the Financial Services Agency to operate as a funds transfer service provider and to issue stablecoins. JPYC anticipates that its stablecoin will facilitate individual international money transfers and corporate payments.
Named ‘JPYC’, the stablecoin will be fully convertible to yen and backed by domestic savings as well as Japanese government bonds. Noritaka Okabe, CEO of JPYC, expressed the company’s goal: “We want people in the world to use Japanese yen through our stablecoin,” aiming to issue 1 trillion yen worth of the stablecoin over three years.
JPYC has set a maximum issuance limit of 1 million yen’s worth of stablecoin per client per business day, with no limits on transfer or holding amounts. Additionally, both transfer and issuance fees will be waived.
Shah Ramezani, co-founder and CEO of the London-based stablecoin infrastructure company Noah, remarked that the emergence of Japan’s first yen-pegged stablecoin underscores the demand for trusted local options among investors, businesses, and institutions. However, he cautioned that the real challenge lies not just in launching new coins, but in integrating them to replace outdated payment systems like Swift. Without global infrastructure, there is a risk of merely replicating the silos of the old financial system rather than creating something innovative.