Japan-based banking guru Mizuho announces Yen-backed stablecoin in the wake of JPM Coin

The cryptocurrency industry has been a buzz of activities in the last couple of weeks. Japan-based banking guru Mizuho Financial Group has announced that it plans to release Yen-pegged stablecoin. The news from the firm comes only days after the largest bank in the United States, JP Morgan said that it will be launching JPM Coin in a few months.

According to a report published by Nikkei Asian Review, a local newspaper outlet, the coin will be released following a partnership among sixty financial institutions. All the banks combined have 56 million user accounts. Which means the Mizuho “J-Coin” will be accorded massive support because the accounts will be directly linked to the user accounts.

The stablecoin in question will under the management of a mobile application referred to as J-Coin Pay. It will integrate QR codes to be used at all retail checkout points. The coin is expected to launch as a stablecoin having the value of 1 yen. It will also be transferable between the user bank accounts and the J-Coin wallet where transaction cost will be set at no fee. The CEO of Mizuho Tatsufumi Saka said in a comment to Nikkei Asian Review:

“The arrival of all these new entrants [into the digital payments space] is eroding the common-sense notion that payment services are provided by financial institutions."

Nikkei says that J-Coin users will have to go through certain credit checks to be allowed to use the service. Moreover, users below the age of 18 will also be allowed in the system. The coin will be utilized for various remittance services as well as payment options, unlike conventional bank account. Mizuho is already working on onboarding shopping stores like the FamilyMart and other retailers in a bid to grow the number of stores to a minimum of 300,000 stores.