Japanese firms to launch yen-pegged digital currency next year

• Firms involved in the digital currency project are GMO Aozora Net Bank, DeCurret crypto exchange, and Internet Initiative Japan
• The project focuses on clean energy transactions

A group of Japanese fintech firms is planning to launch a digital currency pegged to Yen, the national currency, under the ticker DCJPY. DeCurret shared the details via a press release on 12 October.

Japanese internet bank GMO Aozora Net Bank will issue DCJPY. Local crypto-exchange DeCurret will facilitate these transactions over its blockchain-backed network, backed by bank deposits. (Singapore-headquartered Amber Group acquired DeCurret in February 2022). The telecom firm Internet Initiative Japan will then use it to settle clean energy certificates.

The currency is slated to launch by July 2024.

DeCurret’s statement underlined,

“Unlike stablecoins, DeCurret DCP’s DCJPY Network turns bank deposits into digital currency on the blockchain.”

Japan’s 2022 stablecoin law makes way for crypto-projects

The latest is among a long list of fiat currency-pegged digital currency projects launched in Japan in recent months.

Let us take a trip down the memory lane to find out what enabled the launch of such ventures in the Land of the Rising Sun.

In June 2022, Japan’s parliament passed a legal framework around stablecoins. The bill categorizes stablecoins as digital money linked to the yen or other legal tender(s). Drafted by the Financial Services Agency (FSA), it enables banks, trust companies, and transfer operators to issue them. Once the FSA grants permission, these institutions can issue stablecoins.

In March, GU Technologies, a Web3 firm, shared via a press release that three Japanese banks will use its infrastructure to experiment on a stablecoin system. The project will take place over a public blockchain compatible with Ethereum [ETH]. The three banking institutions involved are Tokyo Kiraboshi Financial Group, Minna no Bank, and the Shikoku Bank.

In August, Nikkei Asia reported that a blockchain startup Soramitsu was developing a cross-border payment system for Asian countries. Building upon the CBDC projects of Cambodia and Laos, the project planned to expand to other Asian countries like India and China. Soramitsu also intended to establish an exchange in Japan focusing on stablecoins.

Last month, it emerged that Binance [BNB] Japan was collaborating with a subsidiary of the Japanese financial giant, the Mitsubishi USJ Financial Group, to launch stablecoins. These stablecoins would be pegged to the Yen and USD.