Japanese Banking Giants Enter Stablecoins, Challenge USDT and USDC Dominance

Three of Japan’s largest banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mizuho, are joining forces to launch stablecoins pegged to the Japanese yen and US dollar, a move to challenge the dominance of dollar-backed USDT and USDC ￰0￱ to an October 17 report from Japanese outlet Nikkei, the yen-backed stablecoin will first be used for settlement by Mitsubishi ￰1￱ three megabanks, which collectively serve over 300,000 major business partners, have united specifically to drive stablecoin adoption across ￰2￱ banks will issue stablecoins for commercial usage ￰3￱ UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho Bank are set to jointly issue stablecoins. Similarly, SBI Holdings will integrate Ripple's $RLUSD into services for Japanese clients by Q1 2026.) October 17, 2025 “The banks will build a structure for corporate clients to allow for stablecoins to be transferred between them along uniform standards, initially issuing a yen-pegged coin and potentially a dollar-pegged coin in the future,” Nikkei ￰4￱ Is Building Japan’s Stablecoin To Challenge USDT And USDC Dominance CryptoNews covered this initiative back in April when Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking first announced plans to issue the nation’s first fiat-pegged ￰5￱ the core of this development is Progmat, the blockchain infrastructure company established by ￰6￱ specializes in building digital financial products that meet regulatory ￰7￱ platform will handle the issuance and governance of the new stablecoin, maintaining consistent legal and operational compliance ￰8￱ Progmat, the banks have partnered with several crypto sector players, including domestic exchange Bitbank , blockchain company Avalabs, and crypto infrastructure provider ￰9￱ follows Nikkei’s earlier report that Japan was preparing to approve its first yen-denominated stablecoin this ￰10￱ confirmed then that Tokyo-based fintech company JPYC would lead the ￰11￱ stablecoin, also named JPYC, will maintain its peg to the yen through reserves of highly liquid assets, including deposits and government ￰12￱ applications for the yen-backed stablecoin include sending money to students abroad, facilitating cross-border corporate payments, and enabling participation in decentralized finance.) October 13, 2025 Among the top five markets in the Asia Pacific region, Japan recorded the strongest growth, with its on-chain value received growing 120% year-over-year in the 12 months to June, according to an excerpt from Chainalysis’ 2025 Report released in ￰13￱ the 12 months to June 2025, the report showed that cryptocurrency purchases using JPY stablecoins have been directed primarily toward XRP, which accounted for $21.7 billion in fiat trading activity, followed by BTC ($9.6 billion) and ETH ($4.0 billion).