The World’s 5th Largest Bank Has Plans To Put A Stablecoin To Practical Use

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a Japanese banking and financial services company and the world’s fifth largest bank, recently announced that it’s set to put its digital currency, the MUFG Coin in practical use later this year.

The news of the planned rollout was broken by the recently-appointed MUFG president Kanetsugu Mike in an interview with Asahi Shimbun, a local media agency.

Currently, MUFG holds the title for the fifth largest financial company in Japan and is set to become the first Japanese bank to issue a digital currency, more specifically a blockchain-based stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Japenese yen.

The digital asset was designed with a core focus on currency functionality. All customers need to do is download an application which will automatically convert their fiat assets into MUFG coins.

According to a recent report, approximately 1,500 employees have participated in the trials of the MUFG Coin since 2017.

Kanetsugu Mike stated in the Asahi Shimbun interview :

“I would like to offer unprecedented new value.”

Back in May 2018, MUFG revealed its goal to test the MUFG coin with up to 100,000 account holders as of this year.

Despite the fact that the planned testing period and practical implementation later this year was not cleared by the president, the bank apparently reported that users:

“will be able to use the currency to make payments at places like restaurants, convenience stores and other shops,” as well as to “transfer the currency to other participants’ accounts.”

MUFG is not the only Japanese financial service provider with plans to launch a stablecoin, back in December, Mizuho Financial Group announced its plans to launch its own virtual currency for remittance services and payments. Mizuho’s “J-Coin” was initially meant to launch on March 1st this year but the still-to-launch stablecoin will reportedly link existing bank accounts with new digital wallets. The project is a collaborative effort between 60 counterpart financial institutions whom together service as many as 56 million customer accounts.

Notably, Japan is home to several digital payment innovators such as the e-commerce behemoth, Rakuten, which will soon launch its own cryptocurrency exchange as well as the chat app Line, which has also recently launched its own digital currency.