SBI Group and South Korea’s Kyobo Life Insurance have completed a stablecoin-based cross-border transfer pilot between Japan and South Korea, directly exchanging Japanese yen and Korean won stablecoins without using the US dollar as an intermediary. The proof-of-concept was conducted on the Canton Network, with the project testing direct JPY-to-KRW stablecoin settlement.
The companies said the model could reduce transfer time, costs and foreign-exchange risks for institutional payments. The pilot also explored how digital assets and related settlement funds could be handled safely across borders, as financial institutions in Asia continue to examine stablecoins for payments and settlement.
The project began in July and focused on institutional fund transfers between the two countries. Instead of following a traditional route in which yen is converted into US dollars before being converted into won, the test allowed the two local-currency stablecoins to be exchanged directly.
Both companies used test tokens during the proof-of-concept. The exercise was intended to check whether a direct stablecoin settlement model could work across two different national currencies and financial systems.
For institutions, reducing the number of currency conversion steps can be important. Each additional conversion can add processing time, costs and exposure to movements in foreign-exchange rates. SBI and Kyobo said their direct settlement model could address some of these issues.
The project also examined the operational side of cross-border digital-asset transfers. The companies said the test provided a model for handling digital assets received from overseas together with the corresponding settlement funds in the domestic market.
The partnership is part of wider cooperation between SBI and Kyobo in the Web3 and digital-asset sector. The companies plan to explore areas including Japan-South Korea digital-asset exchanges, asset management and new business models based on blockchain-based transaction structures.
SBI Group has been active in digital assets for several years and has a long-standing relationship with Ripple. SBI and Ripple have worked together since 2016, including through SBI Ripple Asia and other initiatives focused on blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
Ripple has also been expanding its activities in Japan and South Korea. The company recently worked with SBI on the launch of its RLUSD stablecoin in Japan and has been exploring additional institutional applications for stablecoin payments.
Kyobo has separately worked with Ripple on projects involving tokenised Korean government bonds and digital-asset custody. The companies have also been assessing stablecoin-based payment infrastructure.
The Japan-Korea pilot comes at a time when financial institutions across Asia are examining how stablecoins could improve international payments. Stablecoins linked to national currencies can potentially provide a blockchain-based settlement mechanism while reducing exposure to the price volatility associated with traditional crypto assets.
However, the pilot remains a proof of concept rather than a full commercial payment network. The companies have not indicated that the tested system is already processing large-scale public transactions.
The next stage will involve examining how such infrastructure could work under real-world regulatory, compliance and liquidity requirements. Cross-border transfers must also account for different rules in each jurisdiction.
Ripple’s partners SBI Group 🇯🇵 and Kyoto Life Insurance🇰🇷 completed a Japan-South Korea direct stablecoin pilot
Direct JPY-to-KRW stablecoin transfers. No USD in the middle. Faster settlement. Lower costs. Less FX risk. This is what institutional rails in Asia actually look… pic.twitter.com/mvlJl2e2np
— Rednirav (@CryptoRednirav) September 17, 2026
For now, the SBI-Kyobo experiment demonstrates one possible use of local-currency stablecoins: allowing institutions to move value directly between currencies without routing the transaction through the US dollar. If expanded commercially, such systems could become another part of the growing digital infrastructure for cross-border financial settlement.
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