The company has announced that it will officially introduce its stablecoin in Japan on March 26, following a local partner receiving regulatory approval three weeks prior to list the US dollar-backed stablecoin.
USDC will initially be available on the “SBI VC Trade” crypto exchange, which operates as a joint venture between its parent company, the Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, and Circle’s Japanese branch, according to a statement released on March 24.
This update comes just weeks after SBI VC Trade achieved a significant regulatory milestone on March 4, becoming the first in the industry to gain approval to list USDC under the regulatory framework established by Japan’s Financial Services Agency.
The company is also targeting listings for USDC on other platforms such as Binance Japan, bitbank, and bitFlyer in the near future.
Bitbank and bitFlyer are among Japan’s largest crypto exchanges, each processing over $25 million in transactions in the past day and garnering more than 1.85 million visits to their websites over the past month.
The regulatory approval was the result of two years of discussions with regulatory bodies, financial partners, and industry stakeholders, as noted by a representative of the company in a post shared on March 24.
“This opens up incredible possibilities not just for trading digital assets but also for payments, cross-border finance, and commerce, as well as foreign exchange,” he added.
Image Credit: Company Executive
The CEO of SBI Holdings, Yoshitaka Kitao, expressed that the launch of USDC would improve access to financial services and promote innovation within Japan’s dynamic digital economy.
“This aligns with our greater vision for the future of payments and blockchain finance in Japan.”
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Additionally, both USDC and the euro-backed EURC stablecoin were acknowledged as the first stablecoins under Dubai’s Financial Services Authority’s new regulations on February 24.
This recognition permits businesses within the Dubai International Financial Centre — a free economic zone — to incorporate these two stablecoins into various digital asset services, including payments and treasury management.
Currently, USDC ranks as the second largest stablecoin by market capitalization at $59.7 billion, trailing only Tether’s USDT, which stands at $143.8 billion, according to data from CoinGecko.
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