Circle Partners With SBI Holdings to Launch USDC in Japan

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Circle, a payment services company, and SBI Holdings, a conglomerate of financial companies, have partnered to bring liquidity services for the use of USDC, one of the largest stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market, to Japan, and promote the local use of stablecoins in the Web3 industry.

Circle Partners With SBI Holdings to Promote USDC in Japan

Circle, a U.S.-based payment services provider, and SBI Holdings, a financial services company with more than $160 billion in assets, have partnered to promote and facilitate the usage of USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, in Japan.

The partnership, which involved signing a memorandum of understanding between the two companies, encompasses introducing and promoting USDC as a regulated stablecoin in Japan under the Revised Payment Services Act and the commitment to follow Japanese rules for the distribution and management of the stablecoin.

For this purpose, SBI Shinsei Bank, part of the SBI conglomerate, will provide direct banking services to Circle, allowing local customers to have a local liquidity source for USDC-related applications. SBI VC Trade, another SBI company, is seeking registration as an electronic payment instruments service to provide distribution services for Circle’s stablecoin.

A Crypto-Friendly Regulatory Framework

Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, who has been a critic of the regulatory state of the crypto industry in the U.S., clarified that this move was possible due to the Japanese regulations that establish a set of rules that stablecoins must comply with to be legally present in the Japanese market.

Allaire, who qualified the move as a milestone for the company, praised the work of Japanese regulators. He stated:

What you’re seeing here are the fruits of major governments who have established regulatory clarity for stablecoins. Good actors, working together, across the traditional and the new internet financial system to advance innovation with strong safeguards and supervision.

Allaire expects this climate to encourage more partnerships with traditional companies that want to integrate their services into what he called the internet financial system, as the U.S. dollar plays a significant role in cross-border payments, FX, and trading in Japan.

Yoshitaka Kitao, representative director, chairman, president & CEO of SBI Holdings, also expressed his positive opinion about the preliminary agreement and its future outcome.

Kitao, who has been investing in blockchain tech for years, declared:

We are very pleased to have signed a basic agreement for a comprehensive business alliance with Circle. SBI Group is committed to wholeheartedly working towards realizing new financial possibilities using stablecoins.

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