Tokyo-based SBI VC Trade will begin accepting applications Thursday for a Japanese yen-denominated stablecoin lending service offering an initial annualized rate of 3% on JPYSC lent for 12 weeks.
Customers will lend JPYSC to the SBI Holdings subsidiary from Thursday and receive the tokens back with a lending fee at maturity, the company said in a Monday press release. At the advertised rate, the gross return over the 12-week term would be about 0.69%, before tax.
The company said the product pays more than the 0.325% to 1% annual rate SBI cited for ordinary yen deposits. Still, it is not a bank deposit, is not covered by deposit insurance and generally cannot be canceled early.
JPYSC lent to SBI VC Trade will also fall outside statutory asset segregation requirements, meaning customers could lose some or all of their tokens if the company goes bankrupt, according to the release.
The launch gives JPYSC a new use case just weeks after SBI introduced the trust-structured yen stablecoin on June 24, with regulated stablecoins evolving from payments to yield-bearing instruments in Japan. SBI VC Trade previously launched stablecoin lending services in Japan in March for Circle’s dollar-denominated USDC (USDC) stablecoin.
SBI claimed this was the first service to allow Japanese customers to lend their yen-denominated stablecoins in exchange for passive yield.
By offering yields “exceeding” the typical annual rate for yen deposits, SBI anticipates an expansion among yen-denominated stablecoin holders and said the service will be “core” for realizing the future of onchain finance.