By
Godfrey Benjamin
February 15th, 2024
The newly-appointed president of MUFG has announced that the bank is going to put its own cryptocurrency known as MUFG Coin to practice this year.
Stablecoins have already moved from a “something completely new” category to a category of already known notions.
Last year, under the influence of the bear market, different companies started to think how to ensure more reliability of digital assets. And stablecoins that are backed by other types of assets that have real value seemed to be a good solution.
MUFG’s Stablecoin
In March 2018, more than a year ago, Coinspeaker reported about the plans of the fifth largest bank in the world, Japanese Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) to launch its own cryptocurrency in 2019.
It was revealed that it would be a stablecoin called MUFG Coin pegged 1:1 to the Japanese yen.
Just recently, a little bit than a year later, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has announced that it is going to roll out its digital currency later this year. This news has been confirmed by Kanetsugu Mike, who was appointed not so long ago.
Given the ongoing situation, being the largest financial company in the country, MUFG has all chances to become the first bank in Japan to launch its own cryptocurrency.
This digital coin is designed to function as a currency, to enjoy the benefits of MUFG Coin users need to download an app which is designed to convert users’ bank deposits into the stablecoin automatically.
According to the provided data, nearly 1,500 bank employees have taken part in trialing MUFG Coin since its introduction. Last year, it was said that in 2019 MUFG was planning to engage 100,000 account holders in the testing of its digital asset.
Though it is still unclear how long this testing period will last and when exactly its practical implementation will take place, it has been reported that the bank will not only enable its users to use the currency to make payments at places like restaurants, convenience stores and other shops, but also to make peer-to-peer transfers.
Digital Currency in Japan
Speaking about Japanese banking institutions and digital assets, we need to mention another Japanese banking giant Mizuho Financial Group. Last December, it was announced that it was going to launch a digital currency that could be used for payments and remittance services.
Though the launch of J-Coin was scheduled for March 1, it still hasn’t been released. It’s also necessary to highlight that J-Coin is not a cryptocurrency and it is not based on blockchain. The initiative is aimed at boosting the development of the digital economy in the country.
Japan has always been a real fan if innovation and digital assets have been positively welcomed in the country as well. A number of various Japanese companies are gradually entering the world of crypto.
For example, e-commerce giant Rakuten is said to launch its own crypto exchange while messaging app Line has already launched its own crypto and a crypto-to-crypto exchange available in 15 languages.