SBI Launches Japan's First Yen Stablecoin Lending at 3% Yield
SBI VC Trade opens JPYSC lending at 3% annual yield on July 16, while SBI and the Solana Foundation announce a partnership to build Japan's onchain financial market.
Quick Insights
- SBI VC Trade will open applications for a JPYSC lending service on July 16, offering a 3% annualised rate on 12-week term loans, the first time Japanese retail users have been able to earn yield on a yen-denominated stablecoin.
- The product is not a bank deposit, carries no deposit insurance, falls outside asset segregation requirements and cannot generally be exited early. SBI disclosed all of these risks clearly in its launch announcement.
- On the same day, SBI Holdings announced a strategic partnership with the Solana Foundation, renaming its SBI R3 Japan joint venture as SBI Solana Global to accelerate JPYSC's expansion into cross-border payments, tokenized real-world assets and AI agent payment infrastructure across Asia.
SBI VC Trade will begin accepting applications on Thursday for a lending service built around JPYSC, the trust-structured yen stablecoin that SBI Holdings and Startale Group launched on June 24. Customers who lend JPYSC to SBI VC Trade for a 12-week term will receive the tokens back at maturity with a lending fee equal to an annualised rate of 3%, generating a gross return of approximately 0.69% over the loan period before tax.
SBI framed the 3% rate against the 0.325% to 1% annual rates it cited for ordinary yen deposits, positioning JPYSC lending as a meaningfully higher-yielding alternative for holders of idle yen-denominated assets. Japan's benchmark rates have remained near historic lows, making a regulated stablecoin product at that yield level a genuine competitive offer for domestic retail savers. SBI described the service as the first to allow Japanese customers to earn passive yield on a yen-denominated stablecoin.
SBI Is Clear About the Risks: No Insurance and No Asset Segregation
The launch announcement was notably direct about what the product is not. JPYSC lent to SBI VC Trade is not a bank deposit, is not covered by deposit insurance, falls outside statutory asset segregation requirements and generally cannot be cancelled early. The segregation point is significant: if SBI VC Trade were to fail, customers could lose some or all of their lent tokens rather than benefiting from the ring-fenced protections that apply to regulated bank deposits. SBI's transparency here reflects both the nature of the product and the stricter disclosure environment that Japan's Payment Services Act creates for stablecoin issuers.
- Applications open: July 16, 2026
- Annualised rate: 3%
- Term: 12 weeks
- Gross return over term: approximately 0.69% (before tax)
- Deposit insurance: none
- Asset segregation: not applicable
- Early exit: generally not available
- Applicable to: SBI VC Trade account holders only
| Item | JPYSC Lending | Yen Time Deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Tax classification | Total taxation (miscellaneous income) | Separate taxation at source |
| Tax rate | Varies by income; up to 55.945% combined (income tax + reconstruction tax + resident tax) for those earning above ¥200,000 in miscellaneous income | Uniform 20.315% |
| Filing requirement | May be waived for those earning under ¥200,000 in total miscellaneous income, subject to conditions | Withheld at source, no return required |
JPYSC was launched with an initial issuance of ¥10 billion on Ethereum, seeded by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank as issuer and distributed exclusively through SBI VC Trade. Users cannot transfer JPYSC to external wallets at this stage, pending regulatory and tax clarifications on public blockchain circulation. The lending service gives JPYSC a concrete financial utility use case three weeks after launch, consistent with SBI's stated strategy of building yield and settlement functions around the token before expanding its distribution.
SBI R3 Japan Becomes SBI Solana Global as Solana Foundation Takes a Seat at the Table
The lending launch arrived alongside a separate but related announcement. SBI Holdings confirmed a strategic partnership with the Solana Foundation on Monday, with the two organisations planning to build out Japan's onchain financial market together. SBI's existing joint venture, SBI R3 Japan, will be renamed SBI Solana Global, with the Solana Foundation joining as a new partner and the combined entity issuing a revised growth strategy centred on JPYSC.
The partnership's stated ambitions extend well beyond domestic retail lending. The roadmap includes cross-border payment infrastructure, institutional onchain financial services and, notably, payment rails for AI agents, the automated software systems that analysts expect will increasingly need programmable, machine-readable payment infrastructure to transact autonomously. The announcement positions Japan, through SBI's institutional distribution and Solana's high-throughput network, as a potential hub for that emerging payment category across Asia.
"As the migration of financial functions onto blockchain becomes irreversible, the creation of payment instruments compatible with onchain finance is one of the most urgent challenges."
A Week of Heavy Investment Signals Where SBI Is Placing Its Bets
Monday's announcements are the latest in a concentrated run of moves by SBI in the onchain finance space. Last week the group became the sole investor in two separate funding rounds: a $125 million Series C for DeFi risk and analytics firm Gauntlet, and a $76 million Series C for institutional crypto platform EDX Markets. In June, SBI acquired Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank for nearly $289 million. The Lawson convenience store chain also announced a trial of JPYSC payments at one of its stores this week, adding a retail payments dimension alongside the lending product. For more context on how Japan's stablecoin market is developing alongside the Circle and Nomura partnership on USDC-based FX settlement, see our earlier coverage of Japan's stablecoin infrastructure.
