BlackRock, SBI Sign Yen Stablecoin Study for Tokenized Money Market Funds

BlackRock Financial Management, Inc., BlackRock Japan Co., Ltd., SBI Holdings and Startale Group signed an agreement to study possible links between tokenized money market funds and JPYSC, a yen-denominated trust-type stablecoin. The companies dated their joint announcement Oct. 27 in Tokyo.

The memorandum of understanding sets out three areas of work: technology and infrastructure, business models and distribution opportunities, and regulation and market development. The collaboration is intended to welcome financial institutions and businesses in Japan and internationally.

The agreement starts a study; it does not establish a fund-to-stablecoin service. The companies have not identified a particular fund, blockchain, pilot, investor group or transaction design, and they gave no launch date. How a connection might work, including how fund interests or stablecoins would move, remains outside the announced details.

Yoshitaka Kitao, representative director, chairman and president of SBI Holdings, Inc., said, “The shift to onchain finance is becoming an unavoidable global trend.”

JPYSC is issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank and distributed by SBI VC Trade. It launched June 24, initially for SBI VC Trade account holders. SBI VC Trade does not support JPYSC deposits or withdrawals. Public-chain circulation depends on legal and tax treatment being clarified and regulatory confirmation.

Outstanding JPYSC issuance was about ¥20.1 billion as of Sept. 7. SBI and Startale are also exploring JPYSC’s interoperability with Open USD (OUSD), a separate initiative from the money market fund study.