Ripple And SBI Take RLUSD Into Japan — One Of The World’s Strictest Crypto Markets

Ripple disclosed late Wednesday that its dollar-backed stablecoin has officially landed in Japan. Announced alongside SBI Holdings, one of the country’s largest financial conglomerates, RLUSD is now available to both institutional and retail users in Japan following approval from the country’s top financial regulator.

RLUSD Enters Japan 

According to the official announcement, the Japan launch follows approval from the Japan Financial Services Agency, which has classified RLUSD under a new category of electronic payment instrument designed specifically for foreign-issued stablecoins that meet Japan’s safety and compliance standards. 

RLUSD’s market capitalization currently sits near $1.59 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data, representing a 271% increase over the past year. The stablecoin hit an all-time high of $1.8 billion earlier in June before pulling back slightly to its current level.

Jack McDonald, Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Stablecoins, framed the Japan entry as more than a market expansion. “Japan has long been a leader in digital asset adoption, underpinned by both regulatory clarity and financial innovation,” he said, adding: 

This launch marks an important step in expanding access to transparent, regulated USD-backed stablecoins like RLUSD for financial institutions, consumers, and businesses in Japan.

McDonald further stated that through the SBI collaboration, RLUSD is intended to function as infrastructure for payments, tokenization, and collateral management — connecting Japanese businesses and individuals to global liquidity more efficiently.

SBI is now working toward listing Japan’s first XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with regulatory approvals for that product expected sometime in 2028.

One Of Ripple’s Most Significant Moves? 

Japan’s rising interest for Ripple’s ecosystem and products extends well beyond stablecoins. Japanese investors channeled $21.7 billion into XRP through centralized exchanges (CEXs) between July 2024 and June 2025 — more than four times the amount that flowed into Bitcoin (BTC) over the same period. 

But amid this, the country has long maintained one of the most rigorous regulatory frameworks for digital assets in the world. Japan began licensing crypto exchanges back in 2017 following the Mt. Gox collapse. 

It has since built a layered system of oversight requiring exchanges to hold customer funds separately, undergo regular audits, and meet strict anti-money laundering (AML) standards. 

A new framework that took effect on June 1 updated those rules, creating a clearer pathway for qualifying foreign stablecoins to function as regulated payment instruments under the Payment Services Act. Ripple’s RLUSD is now one of the very few dollar-denominated stablecoins to have cleared that bar.

Featured image generated with OpenArt.