SBI Holdings and Startale Group team up to develop a fully regulated yen-denominated stablecoin for global settlement. The initiative aims to bridge traditional finance and blockchain-based payments, positioning Japan to challenge dollar dominance in the $300 billion stablecoin market.

Building a Regulated Digital Yen

The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to co-develop a compliant, tokenized yen designed for enterprise use and cross-border settlements.

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"The transition to a 'Token Economy' where all real-world assets are tokenized and tokens permeate society as a means of settlement - is now an irreversible societal trend,” said Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman & President of SBI Holdings.

“By jointly issuing a Yen-denominated stablecoin Stablecoin Unlike other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that have been designed to keep a stable value. Placing a greater emphasis on stability over volatility can be a huge draw for some investors. Many individuals can be turned off from large swings and uncertainty presented by cryptos relative to other traditional assets.Stablecoins control for this volatility by being pegged to another cryptocurrency, fiat money, or to exchange-traded commodities, including Unlike other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that have been designed to keep a stable value. Placing a greater emphasis on stability over volatility can be a huge draw for some investors. Many individuals can be turned off from large swings and uncertainty presented by cryptos relative to other traditional assets.Stablecoins control for this volatility by being pegged to another cryptocurrency, fiat money, or to exchange-traded commodities, including Read this Term with the Startale Group to serve as the foundation of this infrastructure, and by circulating it both domestically and globally, we aim to dramatically accelerate the movement toward providing digital financial services that are fully integrated with traditional finance.”

Startale Group and SBI Holdings partner to develop a fully compliant Yen stablecoin for the global market.https://t.co/Pz4ASnuMer

— Startale 💿 (@StartaleGroup) December 16, 2025

The project is framed under Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) regime for stablecoins and aims to go live in the second quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approval.

Technology Meets Traditional Banking

Using Startale’s blockchain and smart contract expertise alongside SBI’s financial infrastructure, the yen stablecoin will reportedly function as a Type 3 Electronic Payment Instrument, free from the domestic ¥1 million transfer limit. This structure allows for scalable settlement flows across both retail and institutional networks.

Startale will lead the token’s technical development, focusing on smart contract architecture, APIs, and compliance mechanisms. Shinsei Trust & Banking, part of the SBI Group, will handle issuance and redemption, while SBI VC Trade manages circulation under its crypto asset exchange license.

Read more: Visa Brings Stablecoins to Main Street Banking With U.S. Rollout

The initiative complements Japan’s broader push toward compliant stablecoins and tokenized assets, part of the FSA’s Payment Innovation Project. Authorities have encouraged regulated experimentation, backing pilots by major banks such as Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mizuho.

Japan’s Digital Currency Push

Through this new collaboration, SBI and Startale seek to create interoperability between blockchain-native assets and traditional finance, creating a base layer for on-chain settlement, cross-border payments, and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization Tokenization Tokenization represents the process of substituting a sensitive data element with a non-sensitive equivalent, i.e. token, which bears no extrinsic or exploitable meaning or value. In essence, the rights to the ownership of an asset are converted into a digital token. Tokenization can be used to own an entire unit of an asset. For example, one token that represents the ownership of a piece of real estate or to split ownership of a single unity of an asset such as 200,000 tokens, each one represen Tokenization represents the process of substituting a sensitive data element with a non-sensitive equivalent, i.e. token, which bears no extrinsic or exploitable meaning or value. In essence, the rights to the ownership of an asset are converted into a digital token. Tokenization can be used to own an entire unit of an asset. For example, one token that represents the ownership of a piece of real estate or to split ownership of a single unity of an asset such as 200,000 tokens, each one represen Read this Term.

Even as SBI expands into stablecoins, security remain a challenge. Recently, SBI Crypto reportedly suffered losses of about $21million following a blockchain exploit.

The incident was first flagged by blockchain investigator ZachXBT, who said the activity bears hallmarks consistent with suspected North Korean state-backed hacking groups. According to ZachXBT, the exploit involved suspicious outflows of multiple cryptocurrencies from wallets linked to SBI Crypto, including Bitcoin, ether, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Bitcoin Cash.