Top Japanese bank MUFG introduces new stablecoin platform

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Japan’s largest financial conglomerate, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, is working hard to take the lead in stablecoin development by launching a proprietary stablecoin project.

On Wednesday, MUFG introduced its stablecoin platform called “Progmat Coin,” a blockchain-based system for issuing and managing stablecoins in a 1:1 ratio to the Japanese yen.

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The platform aims to enable a “universal digital asset payment method”, which is cross-bordered with a wide range of digital assets other than Japan’s central bank digital currency, the digital yen, along with other digital assets issued on ProgMate. Provides on-chain interoperability.

According to the announcement, the Progmat Coin project builds on the contributions and work of MUFG’s “ST Research Consortium”, which was established in 2019 with the mission to develop standards for security tokens. The consortium is now being rebranded the “Digital Asset Co-Creation Consortium”, which aims to expand the scope of work beyond security tokens to other areas such as stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), crypto assets and more.

As part of the project, the Japanese financial giant is also planning to introduce a stablecoin based on the Japanese yen, a spokesperson for MUFG confirmed to Cointelegraph.

“It is true that we are aiming to issue a Japanese yen-based stablecoin. We have plans to issue our own stablecoin during 2023,” the representative said. As previously reported, MUFG had previously been working on similar digital currency developments since at least 2015.

The spokesperson stressed that the latest stablecoin project is “completely different” from the flagship digital currency project “DCJPY” in Japan. The initiative, announced in November 2021, unites around 70 Japanese companies, including MUFG, Mizuho and Sumitomo, to launch a yen-based digital currency in 2022.

related: Japan-based messaging app to offer trial run of native tokens starting in March

The news comes amid growing interest by Japanese financial firms in issuing and managing digital currencies and stablecoins. Japanese trading house Mitsui is planning to issue a cryptocurrency pegged to gold, local news agency Nikkei Asia reported last week.

As previously reported, the Japanese Financial Services Agency was planning to propose legislation in 2022 to restrict the issuance of stablecoins only to banks and wire transfer companies.