BlackRock, SBI and Startale Sign MOU to Study Linking Tokenized Money Market Funds to Yen Stablecoin JPYSC

The world's largest asset manager is going to Tokyo to see whether its tokenized cash funds can be paired with a yen stablecoin.

SBI Holdings and Startale Group announced on Oct. 27 that they signed a memorandum of understanding with BlackRock Financial Management and BlackRock Japan. The goal is to explore connecting tokenized money market funds with JPYSC, a yen-denominated, trust-type stablecoin.

It is an agreement to investigate. The companies have not announced a launch date, a product name or how much money would be involved.

What the MOU covers

The partners said they will examine three areas:

• Technology and infrastructure: the technical requirements for linking tokenized funds and JPYSC.
• Business and distribution: possible business models, drawing on each company's networks and market access.
• Regulation and market development: the regulatory questions and the wider market for tokenized assets and stablecoins.

The companies said the effort is meant to be open to financial institutions and businesses in Japan and abroad. They plan to engage potential partners.

The pitch is simple. A money market fund holds short-term, low-risk assets. Tokenize its shares and put a stablecoin beside them on the same network, and an investor could move between a yield-bearing fund and spendable cash without waiting on traditional banking rails.

The players and the numbers

JPYSC launched on June 24, 2026, as Japan's first trust-type yen stablecoin. SBI Shinsei Trust Bank issues it, with reserves held in segregated trust accounts. SBI VC Trade handles distribution. Japanese rules classify it as a Type III Electronic Payment Instrument.

In July, SBI and Startale ran proof-of-concept tests on an Ethereum testnet. They reported near-instant settlement and automated on-chain dividend payments for a tokenized equity fund valued at about $1.3 billion.

As of Oct. 26, Crypto Briefing put JPYSC's circulating supply at about 20.7 billion tokens, worth around $131.5 million. Reserves now include short-term Japanese government bonds alongside other holdings.

That is small next to BlackRock's side of the table. Its tokenized fund BUIDL, launched in 2024, holds roughly $2.17 billion, centered on U.S. Treasuries, repurchase agreements and cash. The announcement refers to tokenized money market funds generally and does not name BUIDL as the product to be linked.

What the executives said

Yoshitaka Kitao, chairman of SBI Holdings, said the shift to on-chain finance is becoming an unavoidable global trend. He said Japan must build the foundations for the next-generation financial market early if it wants to keep pace with the change and lead it.

Jonathan Steele, a senior managing director at BlackRock Financial Management, said digital market infrastructure can serve as a bridge between existing financial services and the blockchain ecosystem.

The legal footing

Japan built its stablecoin framework through a 2022 amendment to the Payment Services Act, with the related rules taking effect in 2023. The companies pointed to that framework in their announcement. Their stated next step is the infrastructure, distribution channels and regulatory structure needed to connect tokenized assets with stablecoins.

By keeping the cash leg in yen, the partners avoid routing through a dollar token. For Japanese institutions managing yen balance sheets, that is a practical difference. For BlackRock, it extends a tokenization strategy built in dollar markets into a new currency and jurisdiction, with a local group as partner.

A related alliance

On Oct. 16, SBI and Startale joined the Open Standard alliance, whose members include BlackRock and Visa. The group is working toward interoperability between JPYSC and OUSD, a dollar stablecoin, so yen-dollar settlement could happen directly on-chain. The MOU is a separate agreement, and no document ties the two together.

What to watch

An MOU is a statement of intent. Nothing in it obliges anyone to ship anything, and these studies can run for months before a single transaction settles on-chain.

The open questions are specific. The partners have not said which fund shares would connect to JPYSC, what the timeline is, or whether Japanese regulators will need to sign off on any new structure. Those answers will show whether this becomes a working product or stays a paper agreement.

The next concrete signal will be any announcement naming a participating fund and a target date. As of today, Oct. 27, neither has been given.