AZ-COM Maruwa joins JPYC Series B, lifting round to $38m

Key points

A third funding tranche has extended JPYC's Series B to ¥6 billion ($38 million), following closings of ¥1.78 billion in February and ¥5 billion in May 2025.
AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings, an Amazon-affiliated logistics company, joined the round after announcing plans to use JPYC for driver and contractor payroll.
JPYC formally launched as Japan's first onshore stablecoin under the fund transfer business framework in October 2025, having previously operated as a prepaid money token.
Transactions using fund transfer stablecoins such as JPYC are capped at ¥1 million ($6,333), while trust bank stablecoins like SBI's JPYSC carry no equivalent ceiling but are currently exchange-restricted.
JPYC has secured alliances covering card products, retail outlets, and LINE's Unifi web3 application, positioning it across both crypto-native and real-economy distribution channels.

JPYC, the issuer of Japan’s first onshore yen-denominated stablecoin, has closed a third tranche of its Series B funding round, bringing the total raised to ¥6 billion (approximately $38 million). The new capital comes partly from AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings, a logistics firm and Amazon partner that had separately announced plans to use JPYC to pay its drivers and contractors. Earlier tranches closed in February (¥1.78 billion) and May (¥5 billion), with the latest extension marking a notable shift from financial to industrial backers.

JPYC operates under Japan’s fund transfer business framework, into which it formally migrated in October 2025 after previously existing as a prepaid money token. That regulatory position gives it broader mobility than SBI’s rival JPYSC stablecoin, which is issued under the trust bank framework but currently confined to use within the SBI VC Trade exchange. The trade-off is a ¥1 million (roughly $6,333) per-transaction ceiling that applies to fund transfer stablecoins and does not apply to trust bank issuances.

The strategic picture JPYC is building spans web3 and real-economy rails simultaneously: card integrations, retail point-of-sale relationships, and a partnership with LINE for its Unifi stablecoin application sit alongside the payroll use case that brought AZ-COM Maruwa into the cap table. Issuance volumes remain modest against dollar stablecoin benchmarks, but the combination of an industrial anchor investor with a live payroll mandate and a growing alliance network suggests JPYC is prioritising embedded, recurring demand rather than speculative float.

What this means

treasury & allocator: The ¥1 million transaction cap is the governing constraint for any treasury or payroll workflow built on JPYC; any corporate with contractor volumes that routinely exceed that threshold per payment leg will need to model batch-splitting mechanics or weigh whether the trust bank framework becomes preferable once SBI or others lift their exchange restrictions.
distribution & BD: AZ-COM Maruwa's move from announced user to equity backer is a structurally interesting pattern: industrial partners willing to take balance-sheet exposure alongside usage commitments are a different class of anchor than financial investors, and mapping which other logistics, retail, or gig-economy operators might follow that path warrants attention given JPYC's stated dual web3 and real-world focus.
compliance/legal/risk: Japan now has two live regulatory pathways for yen stablecoins with meaningfully different transaction limits and venue restrictions; any cross-border or multi-counterparty programme touching JPY settlement should establish early which framework governs each leg, since the fund transfer ceiling creates exposure in high-value workflows that the trust bank route does not.
founder & strategy: JPYC's capital-raise arc, stretching across three tranches over roughly six months and pulling in a strategic industrial investor at the close, raises the question of whether a similar staged approach, anchored by a named real-economy user rather than a financial lead, is a replicable blueprint for stablecoin issuers seeking legitimacy in other Asian fund transfer regimes.

Original source

Ledger Insights

ledgerinsights.com

AZ-COM Maruwa joins JPYC Series B, lifting round to $38m

Key points

Original source

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