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On June 2, JPYC Inc. announced that cumulative issuance on its issuance-and-redemption platform “JPYC EX” had crossed ¥3 billion. It is the largest track record for any yen-denominated stablecoin in Japan, and the momentum has only accelerated since the revised Payment Services Act took effect in 2025.
In absolute terms, ¥3 billion is small. But it is better read as evidence that real, compliant demand for a regulated yen stablecoin is steadily taking shape across Japan’s retail and payments market.
First Lincensed Yen Stablecoin, and a Steep Growth Trajectory
That ¥3 billion did not appear overnight. JPYC began issuing the first licensed yen stablecoin under the revised Payment Services Act on October 27, 2025; cumulative issuance sat at just ¥140 million in November, then crossed ¥1.3 billion by January 2026 which is a monthly growth rate of roughly 69%. Within seven months of launch, it had surpassed ¥3 billion in cumulative issuance and ¥35 billion in total transaction volume.
The more telling metric is velocity, not absolute size. JPYC’s daily asset turnover usually exceeds 100% of its circulating supply, meaning the token is not sitting idle in wallets but functioning as “money in motion” for payments, transfers, and exchange. Direct accounts number around 13,000, yet on-chain wallet addresses exceed 60,000.
JPYC is already used across a range of payment flows: peer-to-peer transfers, merchant payments, card top-ups, and cross-border remittances. Most of this activity settles on Polygon, where low fees and fast settlement unconstrained by banking hours are the main draw.
Its retail footprint is expanding quickly. Through SMCC’s “stera” terminals, JPYC is rolling out touch payments built on the My Number Card and Public Personal Authentication (JPKI), creating an experience usable even by elderly people and children unfamiliar with private keys or wallets. It is also deepening ties with existing financial infrastructure for instance, building a real-time purchase system with Sony Bank that links directly to bank deposits.
The Demand for Yen Stablecoin in Forex
JPYC’s stated goal is a ¥10 trillion issuance balance within three years . The company is squarely targeting growth as programmable money: machine-to-machine (M2M) payments, payroll automation, and smart-contract settlement. At the macro level, JPYC’s rise signals that genuine demand for a compliant yen-denominated asset is forming within a stablecoin market that remains 99% dollar-pegged.
The picture grew larger on June 1, when the FSA's amended rules took effect, reclassifying foreign trust-type stablecoins like USDC from securities into electronic payment instruments under the Payment Services Act. Through an “Equivalence” standard global dollar stablecoins can now be legally on/off-ramped within Japan's payment rails via licensed intermediaries such as SBI VC Trade.
For JPYC, this turns a yen-only ecosystem into a potential JPY–USD settlement hub.
