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Three Leading Japanese Banks Are Working On JPY, USD Stablecoins
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Bank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), and Mizuho Bank aim to modernize corporate settlements and reduce transaction costs through blockchain-based payment solutions built on MUFG’s stablecoin issuance platform Progmat, according to a Friday report from Nikkei.
Progmat was launched back in 2023, backed by a wide consortium of Japanese institutions.
The consortium’s agenda involves creating a shared system for issuing and transferring stablecoins between the banks’ corporate clients, the report said. The tokens will be pegged to fiat currencies, beginning with the Japanese yen, with a dollar-pegged version likely to follow.
The trio expects to roll out the stablecoin by the end of 2025. Mitsubishi Corporation will be the first to onboard the novel stablecoin rails for internal settlements, spanning the banks’ 300,000+ enterprise relationships.
 
If successful, the initiative could establish Japan’s first bank-backed stablecoin network under a unified framework.
Booming Stablecoin Market
The banks’ stablecoin efforts follow institutional momentum on stablecoins, with nation-states scrambling to put the necessary regulations in place.
In August, Nikkei revealed that Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) was readying to approve the issuance of yen-denominated stablecoins. In the U.S., President Trump signed into law the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoin (GENIUS) Act, which creates a regulatory framework for stablecoins issued by U.S. firms.
The project by the top Japanese banks comes as the global stablecoin market, dominated by U.S.-dollar-pegged tokens like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, has grown to over $300 billion.
Major U.S. heavyweights, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, and Wells Fargo, are looking to develop a joint stablecoin linked to G7 currencies, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2026.
Meanwhile, a consortium of nine European banks, including giants ING and UniCredit, is reportedly considering issuing a euro-backed stablecoin to fend off the dominance of U.S. dollar-pegged tokens.