Japan’s SBI to launch yen stablecoin lending with 3% yield
SBI VC Trade will start accepting applications for a yen stablecoin lending product on Thursday, offering 3% annualized yield for a 12-week term on JPYSC. Customers lend JPYSC to the SBI Holdings subsidiary and receive the tokens plus a lending fee at maturity. The gross return over 12 weeks is about 0.69% before tax. SBI says this beats typical yen deposit rates, but the product is not a bank deposit, is not covered by deposit insurance, cannot usually be canceled early, and is not protected by statutory asset segregation, so borrowers could lose tokens if SBI VC Trade fails. The launch gives SBI’s yen stablecoin a new yield-bearing use case soon after its June debut and follows SBI’s earlier USDC lending service. SBI also announced a partnership with the Solana Foundation to build Japanese onchain finance infrastructure around stablecoins, tokenized assets, and cross-border settlement.
