BlackRock and SBI Explore Linking Tokenized Money Market Funds to Yen Stablecoin
Key Facts
SBI Holdings and Startale Group said they had signed a memorandum of understanding with BlackRock Financial Management and BlackRock Japan to explore linking tokenized money market funds with JPYSC, a yen-denominated stablecoin, bringing digital financial asset infrastructure into a new institutional collaboration in Japan. In its announcement issued in Tokyo on October 27, 2026, Startale said the parties would examine opportunities to link the funds and the currency, without announcing a product launch or availability date. The agreement describes the study as exploratory, focused on examining the practical potential of linking a tokenized investment asset with a yen-denominated payment or settlement instrument. That means the current announcement concerns exploring avenues for cooperation, rather than an immediate change to products available to investors. The memorandum includes global asset manager BlackRock alongside Japan's SBI and Startale, with BlackRock Financial Management and BlackRock Japan among the signatories.
The memorandum identified three areas of work: technology and infrastructure, business and distribution, and regulation and market development. This framework places the study beyond systems design, also addressing how products could reach market participants and the commercial arrangements that would require. The regulatory area concerns the environment needed for market development, an increasingly important consideration when a traditional money market fund in tokenized form is paired with a stablecoin linked to a national currency. The announcement gave no details of a specific technology architecture or blockchain network, and set no timetable for the study. The announced step therefore remains a framework for examining requirements and opportunities across the three areas, with the partners yet to announce an execution decision or joint product.
The memorandum aims to examine the link between tokenized money market funds and JPYSC, a yen-denominated stablecoin based on a trust-type credit structure, according to the announcement. The proposed link pairs a tokenized monetary instrument with a stablecoin infrastructure tied to the Japanese currency, while examining how the two could connect technically, commercially and from a regulatory standpoint. Jonathan Steele, managing director at BlackRock Financial Management, said the parties looked forward to exploring how tokenization and digital market infrastructure could broaden access and improve efficiency. His statement outlines one partner's objective for the study, but makes no commitment to specific results or the launch of a service. The announced work is therefore focused on testing whether combining tokenized funds and the stablecoin could support market access and operational efficiency.
Startale said the collaboration was open to a broad range of market participants, including financial institutions and companies in Japan and abroad. That could extend the pool of potential participants in the study to companies and institutions interested in using the infrastructure or distributing products, beyond the four signatories. The announcement named no additional participants or specified how they could join, but described international openness as part of the initiative's scope. The company also said Japan had established a legal framework for stablecoins through amendments to the Payment Services Act. With that framework in place, infrastructure, distribution, regulation and market development remain areas requiring work to expand adoption — the fields the partners included in the memorandum.
In market trading related to coverage of the news, BlackRock shares, listed under the ticker BLK, closed at $1,222.15 on November 10, 2026, according to EL7 data. The figure is the daily closing price in that session; the data provided include no benchmark for comparison or documented trading range for the session. The close came after the October 27 memorandum announcement, while the announcement itself gave no details of the agreement's expected financial impact on BlackRock or its partners. The source sets no schedule for publishing study findings or announcing implementation steps, so the development announced so far remains the signing of a memorandum and an exploration of linking opportunities. The published details did not specify when any results or further progress would be announced.