Japan’s SBI Group and Ondo Finance announced a partnership on July 16 to tokenize Japanese stocks and distribute them through SBI’s brokerage and banking channels, with settlement in JPYSC, the regulated yen stablecoin SBI launched in June. ONDO, the token behind the tokenization platform, climbed about 15% to $0.393 on the news, its highest price since mid-June. A tokenized stock is a blockchain-based token that tracks the price of a listed share, letting investors hold and transfer that exposure onchain instead of through a traditional brokerage account. The deal pairs the largest issuer of tokenized equities with one of Japan’s biggest financial conglomerates, and it gives Ondo’s products a distribution path to millions of Japanese investors.
Key takeaways
- SBI Group and Ondo Finance will tokenize Japanese equities, with settlement and collateral handled in JPYSC, SBI’s yen stablecoin.
- ONDO rose about 15% to $0.393 after the July 16 announcement, lifting its market cap from $1.55 billion to roughly $1.87 billion.
- Ondo issues about 60% of all tokenized stocks, a market currently worth around $13 billion.
- No launch date or initial stock list has been disclosed, and access for investors outside Japan is still undefined.
Why SBI keeps adding tokenization deals
The partnership is SBI’s fourth major digital asset move in under a month. According to The Block, the Japanese conglomerate recently became the sole investor in Gauntlet’s $125 million Series C and EDX Markets’ $75 million Series C, launched a lending product for JPYSC, and partnered with the Solana Foundation to build a Japan-based onchain financial market.
JPYSC sits at the center of that plan. The token launched on June 24 as Japan’s first yen stablecoin issued through a trust bank, SBI Shinsei Trust Bank, under approval from the Financial Services Agency. It is pegged 1:1 to the yen, reserves sit in a segregated trust that holders have a direct legal claim on, and its classification under Japan’s Payment Services Act carries no transaction caps.
Tokyo’s policy direction is helping. Japanese lawmakers cleared a path to bitcoin ETFs and a flat 20% crypto tax earlier this week, and regulators in the US and UK published a joint roadmap for tokenized finance days before that. Large institutions are moving in the same direction, as Visa’s new stablecoin settlement platform showed this week.
What the deal covers and what happens next
Ondo Global Markets (BVI) Limited will issue the tokenized products linked to Japan, and SBI will distribute them across its network, which serves millions of retail and institutional customers. The agreement also covers distribution of Ondo’s existing tokenized US equities and fixed income products to SBI’s customer base, per Blockhead.
The market treated the deal as a growth signal. Bitcoin.com News reports ONDO moved from $0.32 to $0.393, pushing weekly gains past 20%. The rally had a second catalyst: one day earlier, Ondo announced an integration with DTCC, the main US post-trade clearing system, for tokenized US equities.
Key details remain open. The companies have not disclosed a launch date, which Japanese stocks will be tokenized first, or the regulatory structure that will govern access for investors outside Japan. The items to watch are the FSA’s treatment of tokenized equities and the first listed names SBI brings onchain. If settlement in JPYSC works at scale, Japan becomes the first major market where stocks trade against a bank-issued local currency stablecoin.
Frequently asked questions
What is JPYSC?
JPYSC is a yen stablecoin issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank and distributed through SBI VC Trade. It launched on June 24, 2026 as Japan’s first trust bank-backed yen stablecoin. It is pegged 1:1 to the yen, and reserves sit in a segregated trust that holders hold a legal claim on.
Why did the ONDO token price rise?
ONDO climbed about 15% to $0.393 after the SBI partnership was announced on July 16, its highest level since mid-June. The deal opens distribution to SBI’s customer base in Japan, and it followed a separate Ondo integration with US clearing giant DTCC announced one day earlier.
When can investors buy tokenized Japanese stocks?
No launch date has been announced. SBI and Ondo have not said which Japanese stocks will be tokenized first or how investors outside Japan will access them. Distribution will run through SBI’s channels, so Japanese retail and institutional investors are likely to get access first.
