MUFG, Sumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho, three leading banking heavyweights in Japan, are actively developing stablecoin protocols for businesses. The banks are building stablecoins on both the Japanese Yen and U.S. Dollar, a local platform says.
Three major banks in Japan are working on JPY, USD stablecoins
According to today's report by Nikkei, three leading Japanese banks — MUFG, Sumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho — are building native stablecoin projects. Primarily, new stablecoins will be focused on business-related use cases in various segments.
The banks are exploring the opportunities for Janapese Yen and U.S. Dollar-pegged stablecoins. Mitsubishi, a global car manufacturer, might become the first enterprise to onboard novel stablecoin rails.
Three businesses also have ambitions to leverage new stablecoins for cross-border payments for goods and services. In total, the partiticipants of the new initiative work with 300,000+ corporate clients.
Ava Labs, the company behind Avalanche's blockchain solutions and infrastructure provider Fireblocks, are contributing to Japan's stablecoin programs.
So far, the segment of JPY stablecoins is in its very nascent stage. Total market capitalization of all active Yen-pegged stablecoins is below $8 million, while GYEN, the biggest one, is responsible for $6.7 million of this amount.
Ripple expands its Japanese projects in 2025, RLUSD stablecoin included
To provide context, the aggregated capitalization of the stablecoin market is over $300 billion.
Global fintechs are also researching opportunities to introduce their stablecoins to the Japanese scene. As covered by U.Today previously, Ripple decacorn is exploring RLUSD integrations here.
Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin might debut on local exchanges as soon as early Q1, 2025.
Also, Ripple's Japanese partner, SBI, is working together with Solana Foundation on various technology and adoption developments.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team