Japan’s Largest Bank Develops Its Own Stablecoin

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) announced the development of a new stablecoin. The digital asset is expected to be integrated into payment systems and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

SMBC, Japan’s second-largest bank, along with its parent company Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), which managed $1.9 trillion in assets as of 2022, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with three FinTech firms. The agreement aims to launch a stablecoin for future commercial applications.

Sumitomo Mitsui partnered with:

• TIS, an IT company specializing in financial sector technologies;
• Ava Labs, the developers of the Avalanche blockchain;
• Fireblocks, a company focused on institutional digital asset custody and security.

The initiative will explore the technical and regulatory aspects of stablecoin adoption both in Japan and beyond. The project will assess the stablecoin’s role in settlements and RWA transactions, including government and corporate bonds, as well as real estate.

All concepts will be tested using SMBC’s stablecoin, which will be launched on Avalanche, with potential integration of sidechain technology . The pilot phase is scheduled for H2 2025, with a full-scale release anticipated in 2026.

SMBC is actively involved in Japan’s digital asset infrastructure development. In 2024, the bank joined Project Pax , which aims to create a stablecoin-powered platform for cross-border transactions. A year earlier, SMBC became a member of the Web3 alliance called the Japan Metaverse Economic Zone ( JMEZ ), which focuses on promoting blockchain initiatives and Metaverse technologies in Japan.