Bank wire transfer takes only a few minutes! Circle partners with Japan's Nomura, to launch USDC cross-border payments in 2027.

Stablecoin issuer Circle announced a partnership with Japan's Nomura Holdings, planning to launch a cross-border payment service settled in USDC by 2027, officially targeting Japan's foreign exchange market.

On June 25, US time, Circle Internet Financial announced a partnership with Japan's largest investment bank, Nomura Holdings. According to CoinDesk, the two will launch a digital asset and corporate cross-border payment service settled in USDC, expected to go live in 2027. The service targets Japan's foreign exchange trading market, which has a daily average of $440 billion (Bank for International Settlements 2025 data), allowing Japanese companies to directly convert yen into Circle's USDC stablecoin and use on-chain settlement, compressing the current 2-3 business day cross-border settlement time via bank wire transfers to minutes.

Division of labor: Circle provides USDC, Nomura handles client onboarding and regulatory compliance.

The division of labor in this cooperation is clear: Circle provides the USDC stablecoin as the settlement vehicle; Nomura is responsible for client onboarding, regulatory compliance, and integration with existing banking systems. For Circle, this is the most significant partnership for USDC's entry into Japan's institutional settlement market; for Nomura, it marks the first deep alliance between a major traditional Japanese financial institution and a dollar stablecoin issuer on the corporate client side. The two parties plan to complete the remaining infrastructure, including custody arrangements and banking integration, within the next year, with a target launch in 2027.

Regulatory prerequisite: Japan recognizes foreign stablecoins as payment instruments from June 1

The regulatory prerequisite for this cooperation stems from the policy shift of Japan's Financial Services Agency, which recognizes USDC and other foreign stablecoins as legal electronic payment instruments starting June 1, 2026. Previously, foreign stablecoins could only be used in very limited scenarios in Japan; after the new regulations took effect, the corporate use case for USDC in Japan officially opened. The partnership between Circle and Nomura can be seen as the first concrete commercial case applying this regulatory relaxation at the institutional settlement level.

Japan's stablecoin track heats up: JPYSC, JPYC, three major banks and USDC compete on the same stage

At the time of this cooperation, Japan's stablecoin space is simultaneously exploding: SBI Group just launched the trust bank-type yen stablecoin JPYSC on June 23; the three major banks MUFG/SMBC/Mizuho have announced they will jointly issue a yen stablecoin in March 2027; JPYC reaches consumers through LINE Unifi. The overall landscape has evolved from "only 1 pilot in Japan" to a multi-track parallel of "yen-based × multiple issuers + regulatory landing of foreign stablecoins". Chain News previously provided a comprehensive analysis of Japan's three compliant stablecoin issuance paths. The significance of the Circle-Nomura cooperation is to embed USDC directly into Japan's largest FX market, complementing the domestic yen stablecoins.

• This article is republished with permission from: Chain News
• Original title: "Circle×Nomura Join Hands in Japan to Launch USDC FX Settlement, Going Live in 2027"
• Original author: Elponcrab