The Japan Cryptoasset Business Association has created a stablecoin subcommittee

The Japan Cryptoasset Business Association (JCBA) announced on July 10 that it had created a Stablecoin Subcommittee. The subcommittee’s first meeting was held on July 8. The JCBA is a membership organization that seeks to foster the development of the crypto asset industry in Japan.

The Stablecoin Subcommittee was attended by 69 individuals from 39 member companies. The member companies included crypto asset-related business operators such as exchange service providers, financial institutions, blockchain operators, and wallet providers, along with legal professional corporations, tax accountant corporations and audit firms. At the first meeting, the Stablecoin Subcommittee developed an understanding of a possible framework to develop the legal classification of stablecoins, and better understand their potential risks and benefits.

Stablecoins are designed to minimize price volatility, a characteristic of many crypto assets. They achieve a stable price relative to a "stable" asset or basket of assets. A stablecoin can be pegged to a cryptocurrency, fiat money, or exchange-traded commodities.

The JCBA notes that “Stablecoins have the potential to be used as a digital payment method, partly because of their technical background and their feature of offering price stability linked to underlying assets.” Meanwhile, the JCBA acknowledges that “Because stablecoins are not necessarily clearly defined, the current reality is that it is difficult to handle stablecoins in Japan.”

These background factors appear to have prompted the JCBA to create the Stablecoin Subcommittee.

The regular members participating in the newly created JCBA Stablecoin Subcommittee include MONEY PARTNERS CO., LTD.; BITPoint Japan Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Remixpoint, inc.; Coincheck, Inc., a subsidiary of Monex Group, Inc.; Rakuten Wallet, Inc., LVC Corporation, and DeCurret Inc., whose top shareholder is Internet Initiative Japan Inc. Other regular members participating in the Stablecoin Subcommittee include bitbank inc., bitFlyer, Inc., QUOINE Corp., Huobi Japan Inc., Bitgate Co., Ltd., BiTreasury Co., Ltd., LastRoots Co., Ltd., OKCoin Japan K.K., NEXT COIN Co., Ltd., bitFlyer Blockchain, Inc., FXcoin Ltd., and HashPort Inc.

The Stablecoin Subcommittee said it “will advance discussions from a variety of perspectives. Issues will be discussed from operational perspectives such as clarification of legal matters and recognition of assets, and the perspective of trust in price stabilization mechanisms. Another perspective is user protection and AML/CFT (anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism) measures.”

The Stablecoin Subcommittee announced its intention to “work to develop a business environment conducive to crypto asset-related business operators, thereby contributing to the sound development of the crypto asset business in Japan.”