BlackRock will study with SBI and Startale how tokenized money market funds could connect to JPYSC, a yen stablecoin. SBI Holdings, Inc. and Startale Group Pte. Ltd. have signed the memorandum with BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. and BlackRock Japan Co., Ltd., according to the companies’ release of 27 October 2026.

They will explore the technical requirements and the infrastructure a connection would need, and they will look at business models and at how distribution could run through each company’s networks, capabilities and market access. They aim to weigh the relevant rules and to support a wider market for tokenized assets and stablecoins. The release also describes an aim to develop blockchain-based finance in Japan and beyond.

The release uses one name, BlackRock, for BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. and BlackRock Japan Co., Ltd. together.

A stablecoin is a digital token meant to stay near the value of a government currency.

What the agreement leaves open

The release names no fund, no blockchain, no launch date, no product and no fees. It does not say whose funds those would be, or who may invest. The release gives no timeline. It does not say a fund will accept JPYSC, or pay JPYSC out, or that anyone will issue a fund in Japan.

SBI and Startale agreed with BlackRock only to study a connection. Nothing is on sale or in use because of this memorandum.

What a tokenized money market fund is

A tokenized money market fund is shares of a fund that holds short-term, low-risk debt and cash, recorded as tokens on a blockchain.

BlackRock’s tokenized fund BUIDL launched in 2024 and holds about $2.17 billion in US Treasurys, overnight repos and cash, according to The Block. Treasurys are debt of the US government. Overnight repos are one-day loans secured by securities.

The October release does not say the memorandum is about BUIDL.

What JPYSC is and how it launched in June

SBI Shinsei Trust Bank issued JPYSC on 24 June 2026, and an advance offering limited to accounts at SBI VC Trade opened the same day, according to the group’s June notice. BlackRock is not a party to that notice.

The trust bank is the issuer. SBI VC Trade, a crypto-asset exchange, handles distribution. Startale developed JPYSC with the SBI companies. The notice calls Startale a fintech company based in Singapore and an equity-method affiliate of SBI Holdings.

Trust-type means a trust bank holds the backing assets in trust. For this coin, that bank is SBI Shinsei Trust Bank. The June notice says that, because the coin is trust-type, the ¥1 million cap on balances and on transfers that covers Japan’s earlier fund-transfer stablecoins does not apply to JPYSC.

At launch, in June, JPYSC was available only in an SBI VC Trade account. A withdrawal to an outside wallet was not available then. The June notice says they aim to let it circulate on public blockchains in Japan and in other countries, once legal treatment and tax treatment are settled, and only with the regulator’s confirmation. The October memorandum does not revisit those limits.

The June notice already named settlement of tokenized real-world assets, such as stocks, bonds, real estate and fund interests, as a use they aim to build.

In the October release, Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman and President of SBI Holdings, Inc., called JPYSC “Japan’s first trust-type yen-denominated stablecoin.”

PTYcoin covered Startale Japan’s digital bond.

Who can issue one under Japan’s payment law

According to The Block, Japan passed amendments to the Payment Services Act in 2022, and they took effect a year later. Those amendments call fiat-backed stablecoins Electronic Payment Instruments, and issuance is limited to banks that hold a license, to trust companies, and to registered services that move money.

Who they say they will talk to

The release says the collaboration is meant to be open to other financial institutions and businesses in Japan and abroad. The signatories will talk to potential partners, and to other parties involved in the work, about further collaboration and about how that market might develop.

This article is not investment advice.