Skip to content
Wiki
Home / Institutions / JPYC

JPYC

Institution · Stablecoin issuer

JPYC is the issuer of the first FSA-approved yen-denominated stablecoin under Japan's PSA stablecoin amendments, registered as a fund-transfer service provider (FTSP) by the FSA on 18 August 2025 and launched into production on 27 October 2025. Reserves are backed 1:1 by cash deposits and Japanese government bonds, with disclosure at the issuer level. JPYC is the worked example of the FTSP issuance route under the Japan PSA EPI regime, and the only one of the three available issuance routes (bank-direct, FTSP, trust) currently producing a non-bank, non-trust-consortium yen stablecoin shipping at retail scale. For an APAC operator, JPYC is the live test of whether the lightest-touch route under the most granular major Asian stablecoin statute can produce a counterparty-acceptable instrument, and the yen-denominated counterpoint to the trust-route megabank consortium products built around MUFG's Progmat platform.

What they do

JPYC issues a yen-denominated payment stablecoin with par redemption against the issuer, backed by segregated reserves of cash deposits and Japanese government bonds. The token is bearer-style transferable on-chain subject to issuer-level allow/blocklist controls, similar in operating profile to USDC under the GENIUS framework or HKD-pegged stablecoins under the Hong Kong Stablecoins Ordinance perimeter. Distribution as of late 2025 runs through direct issuance to onboarded users, listings on regulated Japanese exchanges, and selected on-ramp and wallet partnerships. Onchain circulation passed JPY 2 billion as of mid-July 2026, and the demand surface is shifting from consumer experiments toward corporate payables: AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings, a Tokyo-listed logistics firm serving Amazon Japan with JPY 230.5 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended March 2026, will pay around 2,300 subcontractors including independent truck drivers in JPYC, the first large-scale corporate deployment (CoinDesk).

The distinguishing feature against the rest of the Japanese stablecoin landscape is the FTSP route choice. The three PSA routes (bank-direct, FTSP, trust) produce structurally different instruments with different reserve mechanics and credit exposures. The trust route, used by MUFG's Progmat consortium, produces a beneficial-interest token that is bankruptcy-remote from the trust company but constrained by permissioned-transfer logic at the contract level. The FTSP route, by contrast, produces a bearer-style token where the holder is exposed to the FTSP's segregated reserve pool, with redemption mediated by the fund-transfer service regime rather than by trust law. JPYC is the only live FTSP-route EPI in production.

The pre-amendment JPYC was a prepaid voucher denominated in yen with limited redemption rights, operating under the prepaid-instrument regime. Post-amendment JPYC is a registered FTSP-issued stablecoin with reserves backing par redemption, statutory segregation, and a token contract sitting under the supervised perimeter. Operators integrating JPYC should treat "JPYC pre-2025" and "JPYC post-October-2025" as different instruments.

Programme participation

  • FTSP route under PSA stablecoin amendments. JPYC is the only live FTSP-route EPI in production. The launch is the operational test of whether the FTSP path is workable for non-bank stablecoin issuers in Japan. See JPYC's FTSP route.
  • Cross-route taxonomy. JPYC sits in deliberate contrast with the trust-route Progmat-format products and with bank-direct issuance. See Japan PSA stablecoin routes.
  • Distribution partnerships. The consolidated counterparty list (exchange listings, wallet partnerships, on-ramp arrangements) is not in current public disclosure form. Operators sizing JPYC adoption should refer to current issuer disclosures.
  • Joint megabank stablecoin and cross-border payments proof-of-concept (Nov 2025). MUFG, Mizuho and SMBC, alongside Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking and Progmat, ran a proof-of-concept under the FSA FinTech PoC Hub for joint stablecoin issuance and cross-border payments, tested with Mitsubishi Corporation's Japanese and overseas offices; JPYC anchored the yen leg while Progmat supplied the rails (Stablecoin Insider).

Regulatory positioning

JPYC operates as a registered FTSP under Japan's Payment Services Act, supervised directly by the FSA. The FTSP regime is a non-bank licence for fund-transfer activity, with the historical perimeter shaped by the JPY 1 million per-transaction cap and a redemption logic that treats the user balance as a custodial liability rather than a deposit. Under the PSA stablecoin amendments, an FTSP issuing a stablecoin must satisfy reserve, segregation, and disclosure requirements on top of the FTSP licence.

What a holder is exposed to in stress is the FTSP's own balance sheet, mediated by the segregation rules. If the FTSP fails, the segregated reserves are intended to fund redemptions, but the holder's claim is to the pool rather than to a fiduciary structure. The structural protection is weaker than the trust route and stronger than an unsecured bank deposit only because of segregation. The historical FTSP per-transaction cap is the operational variable to watch under stress at scale.

For agentic-commerce use cases, the FTSP route is structurally the most accommodating of the three Japanese routes. An AI agent counterparty holding JPYC inside a custody or wallet wrapper onboarded to the issuer's allowlist can transact with other allowlisted counterparties without the per-transaction beneficiary-tracking that the trust route would require. JPYC is therefore the path of least resistance for agentic yen flows in Japan.

Recent activity

  • 19 Jul 2026AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings announced it will pay outsourcing fees to around 2,300 subcontractors and independent truck drivers in JPYC, the first large-scale corporate stablecoin deployment in Japan; the firm is also considering a formal business partnership with the issuer and a JPY 1 billion investment in it. The stated rationale is faster cash flow to drivers and small carriers amid Japan's labour shortages, with near-instant, fee-free conversion to yen as the recruiting pitch (CoinDesk).
  • Mid-Jul 2026. Onchain circulation passed JPY 2 billion as of mid-July 2026, and convenience-store operator Lawson announced a pilot of JPYC payments at its Takanawa Gateway City store in Tokyo from early August 2026 (CoinDesk).
  • Nov 2025MUFG, Mizuho and SMBC announce a joint stablecoin issuance and cross-border payments proof-of-concept under the FSA FinTech PoC Hub, with JPYC anchoring the yen leg (Stablecoin Insider).
  • 27 Oct 2025JPYC launches the first FSA-approved yen-denominated stablecoin under the post-amendment PSA regime (Chambers Fintech Japan 2025).
  • 18 Aug 2025JPYC registered as an FTSP by the FSA, the prerequisite step for the October 2025 stablecoin launch.