Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has finalized rules creating a regulatory pathway for foreign trust-based stablecoins, effective 1 June 2026.
Foreign stablecoins can only circulate in Japan through a locally licensed intermediary. SBI VC Trade became the first to obtain such a license in March 2025, enabling it to distribute Circle’s USDC. But that license alone doesn’t resolve the status of every type of foreign stablecoin. Foreign trust beneficiary rights, the structure closest to how many international stablecoins may be issued in future, risk being classified as securities rather than stablecoins under Japanese law.
The new rules address this by creating a dedicated category for foreign trust-based stablecoins and carving them out of the securities definition, provided they meet equivalence requirements described below.
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