Circle, Nomura plan to settle the score in Japan's corporate FX race by 2027 💴

Circle and Japan's largest investment bank Nomura have reportedly partnered to roll out instant foreign exchange settlement for Japanese corporations using dollar-denominated stablecoins, with a target launch as early as 2027, according to a Thursday report from Nikkei. The service would let companies convert yen into USDC for cross-border transactions, reducing settlement delays tied to banking hours and time zone differences.

The tie-up would bring USDC, the world's second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization at $73.8 billion per CoinMarketCap data, into Japan's corporate FX market and extend stablecoin usage into business-to-business cross-border settlement. Cointelegraph reached out to Circle and Nomura but had not received a response by press time.

The partnership arrives during a wave of stablecoin activity in Japan. On Wednesday, SBI Holdings and Startale Group announced JPYSC, a trust bank-backed yen stablecoin aimed at institutional and cross-border settlement, while Ripple USD (RLUSD), the world's 10th-largest dollar stablecoin by market capitalization, officially launched in Japan.

Japan was among the first major economies to create a legal framework for stablecoins, permitting banks, trust companies and licensed money transfer providers to issue regulated tokens under the Payment Services Act. Regulators have been working to move digital assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, the framework governing traditional financial products, a shift that could enable exchange-traded funds, lower tax treatment, tighter exchange oversight, disclosure requirements and insider trading restrictions. The Lower House passed a bill earlier in June to bring crypto assets under that framework, with a proposed reduction in the capital gains tax on crypto assets from 55% to a flat 20%.