JPYC stablecoin falls short of targets in first year, CEO says

Japan’s first regulated yen stablecoin has reached its first birthday, and the founder is not celebrating. JPYC CEO Noritaka Okabe told NADA NEWS that the yen-backed token has not gained the traction his company expected. It is a rare moment of candor in an industry that usually treats every milestone as a moonshot. “Frankly, I don’t think it’s growing,” Okabe said. He described trading volume as not bad. Circulation was the problem. The amount of JPYC actually outstanding has failed to satisfy him, and it sits well below the company’s internal targets. A year of numbers, and a gap JPYC launched on October 27, 2025, after the issuer registered as a funds transfer service provider in Japan. By its first anniversary on October 27, 2026, cumulative issuance had passed ¥10 billion. Cumulative issuance and circulating supply are not the same thing. The first counts every token ever minted. The second counts what is still out there being held or used after redemptions. For a stablecoin, circulation is the number that matters, because it shows how much money people are willing to park in the token rather than cycle through it. That is where JPYC has stalled. Okabe pointed to a specific ob...