Japan’s SBI to Launch Digital Currency for Instant Payments

A Japanese financial services group is drawing plans to issue its own tradeable digital currency to be used for payments and instant P2P transfers.

Japan’s SBI Holdings, a major financial services group already invested in digital currencies and blockchain technology (via Ripple), is set to issue its own digital currency for payments. According to the prominent regional publication Nikkei, the financial group’s digital token will also be tradeable for Japanese yen and will be based on blockchain technology.

The digital currency will enable consumers to make payments at stores instantaneously and can also be used to make peer-to-peer transactions at significantly lowered costs compared to existing methods including credit cards and ‘digital money’ (wallet cash that assumes the value of fiat cash).

SBI’s digital currency will reportedly maintain a stable exchange rate to the Japanese yen. SBI’s employees will begin testing the digital currency at stores near the company’s Tokyo headquarters next year.