Japan’s Biggest Banks Prepare a Yen Stablecoin by Year’s End

Japan’s largest banks are preparing to launch a yen-pegged stablecoin by the end of the year, aiming to modernize corporate settlements and reduce transaction ￰0￱ UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), and Mizuho Bank will issue the stablecoin on MUFG’s Progmat platform, setting a foundation for seamless and interoperable digital payments across Japan’s corporate ecosystem. Together, the three institutions serve more than 300,000 corporate ￰1￱ using a shared blockchain-based system, the banks hope to simplify settlements, eliminate delays, and enable faster, lower-cost transactions between ￰2￱ ￰3￱ the Lead as First User Mitsubishi ￰4￱ be the first to adopt the stablecoin for internal financial ￰5￱ over 240 subsidiaries worldwide, the company plans to streamline dividend payments, asset purchases, and cross-border transfers, reducing administrative burdens that currently slow corporate ￰6￱ successful, this could become Japan’s first unified bank-issued stablecoin network, operating across multiple public blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and ￰7￱ has also signaled plans to expand to more ￰8￱ Momentum and Rising Competition The initiative has already sparked wider ￰9￱ Japan recently partnered with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking ￰10￱ explore stablecoin issuance on Progmat, while regulators at Japan’s Financial Services Agency are preparing to approve yen-based ￰11￱ firms like JPYC and financial groups such as Monex are also pursuing yen-pegged digital assets, signaling that the race has ￰12￱ banks and Web3 platforms now see stablecoins as a key step toward a more efficient financial ￰13￱ Japan accelerates blockchain adoption, a unified stablecoin model could reshape corporate transactions and position the country as a global leader in digital finance.