Japan’s Largest Bank Unveils Stablecoin Platform For Banks

Japan’s largest bank Megabank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has announced its stablecoin issuance platform Progmat Coin that would be used to issue local bank-backed stablecoins on multiple public blockchains.

The stablecoins will be issued on several blockchains, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Cosmos and Polygon.

New law allows trust banks to issue stablecoins in Japan

As per the announcement, Progmat Coin is designed to support stablecoin issuance from various trust banks, not just MUFG. The new legislation that came into force starting this month, allows Japanese trust banks to issue stablecoins.

MUFG also revealed that it is working with blockchain interoperability startup DataChain. It is also collaborating with TOKI, a cross chain bridge solution for public blockchains based on DataChain’s technology. With this collaboration, the aim is to support public blockchain cross chain swaps, cross chain payments and cross chain lending. For example, the purchase of an NFT could be settled with a Progmat Coin on a different blockchain.

TOKI will run liquidity pools with Progmat Coins on multiple blockchains. TOKI plans to launch its bridge later this year and issue its own crypto token, the announcement noted.

Progmat Coin gets backing from top stock exchange operators

MUFG had first announced its Progmat Coin in February last year, with the aim to provide a universal digital asset payment method for stablecoins, other crypto assets, and a Japanese CBDC.

The Progmat platform also supports security and utility tokens, with some of these potentially involving cross bridges in a similar manner. Numerous security tokens have already been issued. MUFG founded Progmat, but the platform is morphing into a joint venture with backing from the country’s main stock exchange operator JPX, Mizuho, SMBC, SBI and others.

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