Table of Contents
Researcher
Key Takeaways
Despite being known as cash-dependent, Japan went from 13% to over 42% cashless in a decade. Stablecoins are next, backed by a comprehensive legal framework enacted in 2023, which was ahead of most major economies.
Japan's three megabanks are building stablecoin infrastructure through Progmat, JPYC launched the first legally recognized yen stablecoin in 2025, and SBI Holdings plans to launch its own L1 aimed at institutional trading.
Stablecoins represent a shift from institutional trust (banks) to programmable trust - money that settles instantly, runs 24/7, and integrates with smart contracts and tokenized assets.
MoneyX is the convergence point. Produced by SBI, JPYC, Progmat, and CoinPost, the conference unites megabank executives, regulators, and builders to align Japan's stablecoin strategy amid global competition from the US, EU, and Asia.
On February 27th, MoneyX, the first stablecoin-focused conference in Japan, was held in Tokyo. Organized by the WebX Executive Committee and produced by SBI Holdings, JPYC, Progmat, and CoinPost, MoneyX is a cross-disciplinary forum spanning policy, industry, and society to explore what may be the most fundamental question for japan:
“What should money look like in the 21st century?”
Japan has traditionally been considered a slow mover in the digital era. A country where cash reigned supreme, where fax machines persisted in offices well into the 2020s. But this perception misses something important. When Japan moves, it moves with institutional depth and regulatory precision that few countries can match. And in stablecoins - arguably the most consequential innovation in money since the banknote - Japan has been quietly making progress for years.
In June 2023, Japan became one of the first major economies in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for stablecoins, amending the Payment Services Act to define fiat-backed stablecoins as "Electronic Payment Instruments" and restricting issuance to licensed banks, trust companies, and fund transfer service providers. While the US debated. While Europe implemented MiCA in stages. Japan acted.
By October 2025, JPYC launched the country's first legally recognized yen-backed stablecoin, fully backed by bank deposits and government bonds. Days later, Japan's three megabanks - MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho which totally hold around $6.5 trillion - began rolling out a joint stablecoin system through Progmat's infrastructure. SBI Holdings announced plans to issue a bank-backed yen stablecoin through its subsidiary Shinsei Trust and Banking by mid-2026.
It is time for finance to improve. It is time for "Money" to be changed.
We spend it, borrow it, save it, send it, and build our lives around it. Yet the infrastructure underlying money has barely evolved in decades. Settlements still take days. Cross-border transfers still cost too much. Financial access still depends on where you were born. Stablecoins represent a chance to fix this.
That is what MoneyX is about.
1. Japan, and the Digital Era
For years, Japan was known as the country that stubbornly held onto cash. Even as neighbors like China and South Korea sprinted toward mobile payments, Japan's cash-in-circulation climbed to 23% of GDP by 2022 which is the highest among of any developed economy. As recently as 2010, only 13% of transactions were cashless.
The narrative of Japan as a digital laggard, however, has always been incomplete.
Japan invented the QR code by Masahiro Hara in 1994.
It launched one of the world's first real-time payment systems called Zengin System.
Sony's FeliCa NFC technology powered the Suica and Pasmo contactless cards in the early 2000s.
Japan was not lacking innovation. It was lacking the push to deploy it at scale.
That push came. And once it did, the acceleration was remarkable.
The turning point arrived around 2018, when the government formulated the "Cashless Vision" with a target of 40% cashless adoption by 2025. The "cashless payment wars" erupted. PayPay, LINE Pay, Rakuten Pay, and others competed aggressively for market share with cashback campaigns and merchant incentives. COVID-19 accelerated the shift further, as hygiene concerns pushed even reluctant consumers toward contactless payments.
By 2024, Japan's cashless ratio hit 42.8%, surpassing the government's target ahead of schedule. PayPay alone reached over 70 million users. The 2025 Osaka World Expo became the first world's fair in history to go entirely cashless.
The pattern is clear. Japan's adoption curve does not follow a straight line, but more of a hockey stick. Slow buildup, sudden acceleration, and deep institutional commitment once the tipping point arrives.
Stablecoins are next.
Japan's amended Payment Services Act in June 2023 did not just regulate stablecoins - it created the most comprehensive stablecoin framework of any major economy at that time. It defined who can issue, how reserves must be held, what consumer protections apply, and how intermediaries must register. It was regulatory clarity of a kind that the US and most of Europe still have not fully achieved.
The result: institutional confidence. Japan's megabanks did not just watch from the sidelines. They built. Progmat, backed by MUFG and supported by dozens of financial institutions, created a multi-chain infrastructure for stablecoin issuance across Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Cosmos. Project Pax, launched in 2024 by the same three megabanks, integrated SWIFT messaging with blockchain settlement for cross-border payments. JPYC set a target of 10 trillion yen in circulation within three years.
2. Money, and Stablecoin
To understand what stablecoin actually means, we need to step back and ask a more fundamental question: what is money, and why is it changing now?
The story of money is the story of trust at scale. Every leap in the history of money has been a leap in how far trust can travel.
And stablecoins represent the next one.
The Ancient Era - Local Trust. In the earliest human societies, money took whatever form the community agreed to value. Seashells, beads, salt, cattle. These objects worked because everyone in a small community recognized their worth. But they could not scale. A cowrie shell meant nothing to a trader from a distant land who had never seen one. Money was local, because trust was local.
The Unification Era - Institutional Trust. The breakthrough came with the standardization of value. Gold coins minted by sovereign states. Banknotes issued by central authorities. The invention of the modern banking system. Trust was no longer personal, it was institutional. A banknote issued by the Bank of England carried weight not because of the paper it was printed on, but because of the institution that backed it. This model scaled globally and has dominated for centuries.
Japan's own financial history mirrors this arc. The Meiji government established the first national banks in the 1870s. Mizuho traces its lineage to Dai-Ichi Bank, literally "First Bank," founded in 1873. For over 150 years, institutional trust has been the bedrock of Japanese finance. It is what made the megabanks what they are today.
But this system, for all its durability, carries legacy inefficiencies. Settlements still rely on intermediary chains. Cross-border payments pass through correspondent banks that add days and fees at each step. Domestically, Japan's Zengin interbank settlement network - while reliable - operates within fixed hours and rigid protocols. The trust is there. The speed is not.
The Digital Era - Programmable Trust. We are now entering the third development in trust. Digital assets, and stablecoins in particular represent money that is natively digital, and programmable. A yen-backed stablecoin is not just a digital version of a banknote. It is money that can settle in seconds instead of days. Money that operates 24/7 without banking hours or time zones. Money that can be programmed with conditions, embedded in smart contracts, and moved across borders with near-zero friction. Its a money for the digital era.
The same country that went from 13% cashless to over 42% in just over a decade, the same institutions that collectively manage $6.6 trillion in assets, are now applying that institutional weight to the next form of money.
Tokenized assets extend this logic further. When securities, bonds, and real estate can be represented as digital tokens, the entire financial system becomes composable. A tokenized government bond can serve as stablecoin collateral. A tokenized equity can be settled instantly. The line between "money" and "financial asset" begins to blur in productive ways. SBI Holdings CEO Yoshitaka Kitao put it plainly: "The transition to a token economy, where all real-world assets are tokenized and tokens permeate society as a means of settlement, is now an irreversible societal trend."
The ancient era asked: does my neighbor trust this shell? The institutional era asked: does the world trust this bank? The digital era asks a new question: can trust be embedded in the infrastructure itself?
The institutional era asked: does the world trust this bank?
The digital era asks a new question: can trust be embedded in the infrastructure itself?
3. MoneyX, and Collaboration
Source: MoneyX | ASIA’S LEADING WEB3 CONFERENCE
MoneyX exists because this transformation cannot happen in silos.
The conference is organized by the WebX Executive Committee and produced by four organizations that each represent a critical pillar of Japan's stablecoin ecosystem:
SBI Holdings - One of Japan's largest financial conglomerates. SBI has been at the forefront of Japan's digital asset strategy, from its subsidiary's planned bank-backed stablecoin issuance to its partnership with Ripple on RLUSD distribution and its role in connecting traditional finance with blockchain infrastructure.
JPYC - The issuer of Japan's first legally recognized yen-backed stablecoin. JPYC represents the startup-driven, permissionless innovation side of the equation — fast-moving, globally minded, and committed to making stablecoins accessible to ordinary businesses and consumers.
Progmat - The digital asset infrastructure company started by MUFG. Progmat provides the institutional-grade platform on which banks, trust companies, and financial institutions can issue stablecoins, tokenized securities, and utility tokens across multiple blockchains.
CoinPost - Japan's largest crypto and Web3 media outlet, and its WebX conference has become Japan's flagship Web3 event.
What makes MoneyX distinctive is the breadth of its participants. The speaker list reads like a summit of Japan's financial establishment: senior executives from Mizuho, Daiwa Securities, SBI Holdings, and SMBC sit alongside blockchain founders, regulatory experts, and technologists. The Bank of Japan's former FinTech Center head. METI-affiliated policy advisors. The conversation spans regulation, technology, business strategy, and social impact.
This cross-sector composition reflects a deeper truth: stablecoins are not just a crypto phenomenon. They are a financial infrastructure upgrade that requires banks, regulators, technology companies, and startups to build together.
The global context adds urgency. The US passed the GENIUS Act, establishing its first comprehensive stablecoin framework. The EU's MiCA is in full effect. Singapore and Hong Kong have refined their regimes. Korea is working on KRW stablecoin infrastructure.
The competition is no longer about whether stablecoins will matter. It is about which countries and institutions will shape the standards, build the infrastructure, and capture the value that flows through these new rails.
Japan has built the regulatory foundation. It has the institutional commitment. It has the technology.
MoneyX is where all of these threads converge. A space to align vision, forge partnerships, and accelerate the transition to a financial system worthy of the digital age.
