The short version
- Yen stablecoin issuer SBI and its tech partner Startale signed an MOU with BlackRock on Tuesday to explore linking tokenized money market funds with JPYSC, a coin worth about $131 million.
- It would give Japanese companies a yen route into yield-bearing fund tokens like BlackRock’s $2.16 billion BUIDL, but no fund and no start date are named yet.
- The crew is watching for the day JPYSC can leave the SBI VC Trade exchange, which Japan’s legal and tax rules still block, and for the next announcement Startale’s CEO teased for Wednesday.
SBI’s yen stablecoin just got the world’s biggest asset manager on the phone. SBI Holdings and Startale announced on Tuesday that they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with BlackRock to explore connecting tokenized money market funds with JPYSC, SBI’s yen stablecoin.
It is a study, not a launch. There is no start date and no named fund. JPYSC is still small, at about $131 million in circulation, while BlackRock’s BUIDL token fund alone holds about $2.16 billion. So what are they actually building?
Startale CEO Sota Watanabe shared the release on X:
BlackRock, SBI Holdings and Startale Sign Landmark MOU to Bridge Tokenized Money Market Funds and Yen Stablecoin (JPYSC)
sbigroup.co.jp/english/news/p…
What BlackRock, SBI and Startale Signed
Two BlackRock companies are in the deal, BlackRock Financial Management in the US and BlackRock Japan, next to SBI Holdings and Startale Group, the Singapore-based firm that builds JPYSC’s smart contracts and wallet. The joint release lists three areas they will look at:
- Technology and infrastructure: what it takes to move value between tokenized money market funds and JPYSC.
- Business and distribution: who would sell it, and through which of their networks.
- Regulation and market development: what Japanese rules still need to be settled.
The group says it is open to other banks and companies in Japan and abroad. SBI chairman Yoshitaka Kitao put it bluntly: “The shift to onchain finance is becoming an unavoidable global trend.” BlackRock’s Jonathan Steel was more careful and spoke of “disciplined innovation.”
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Why a Yen Stablecoin Needs a Tokenized Fund
A stablecoin pays nothing. A money market fund holds short-term government debt and pays interest. Put the fund on a blockchain and you get a token that earns a yield and can move at any hour, which is what BUIDL does with US Treasurys.
The missing piece is the cash leg. A tokenized fund needs a stablecoin to buy in and cash out, and today that is almost always a dollar coin like USDC. JPYSC would give Japanese companies and funds a way to do the same in yen, without a bank transfer in the middle.
That matters because yen stablecoins are tiny next to dollar ones. All dollar stablecoins together are worth about $301 billion. A yen coin tied to a BlackRock fund is a reason for a Japanese treasurer to hold one.
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The Catch: JPYSC Can’t Leave SBI Yet
JPYSC went live on Ethereum on June 24 as Japan’s first trust-type yen stablecoin, issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank. The trust model is what makes it interesting for big money. The yen behind it sits in a trust, apart from the issuer’s own assets, and it avoids the limit of about $6,350 on balances and transfers that Japan sets for older money-transfer-type coins such as JPYC.
But it has not reached the open blockchain yet. The JPYSC page says withdrawals from SBI VC Trade, the exchange that handles it, are not possible for now, because Japan has not settled the legal and tax treatment of trust-type coins on public chains. In other words, the $131 million mostly sits inside one exchange.
That is the real first step. A BlackRock link can’t go far until JPYSC can move to outside wallets, and only regulators and the tax office can set that date.
What to Watch Next
SBI and Startale have been busy this month. On October 16, they joined Open Standard, the group behind the shared dollar stablecoin Open USD (OUSD), to test faster dollar-yen settlement between OUSD and JPYSC. Earlier in October, Startale Japan issued a corporate bond that pays interest and principal in JPYSC.
- Withdrawals: the day SBI VC Trade lets JPYSC leave the exchange is the day this becomes a real market.
- A named fund: BUIDL is the obvious candidate, but the MOU names none. The first fund on the list would show how serious this is.
- Wednesday: right after the release, Watanabe wrote on X that “tomorrow we have another one.”
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For now, BlackRock has only signed up to look. Still, no yen coin has had a bigger name next to it, and in a market where every bank wants a stablecoin story, that counts for something.
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