Japan’s SBI Group and South Korea’s Kyobo Life Insurance have successfully completed a cross-border proof-of-concept project that tested direct institutional fund transfers using yen- and won-denominated stablecoin representations. The exercise, which ran from July until its announcement on September 17, 2026, demonstrated a transaction path that bypassed the conventional intermediate conversion into U.S. dollars.

The pilot was conducted in partnership with SBI Digital Practice, the blockchain-focused subsidiary of SBI Holdings. It took place entirely within the Canton Network test environment, a permissioned blockchain infrastructure designed for regulated financial institutions that require configurable privacy and access controls. Only test tokens representing the respective stablecoins were used. No live stablecoins or actual institutional funds were transferred at any stage.

Direct Currency Exchange Without Dollar Intermediation

Traditional cross-border settlements between Japan and South Korea typically require converting yen into dollars and then dollars into won. The pilot modeled an alternative route in which a yen-denominated stablecoin could be exchanged directly for a won-denominated counterpart. Kyobo Life stated that the structure showed the technical feasibility and efficiency of stablecoin-based institutional transfers, potentially shortening processing times and lowering transaction costs by eliminating one conversion step. No quantitative data on time or cost savings were released.

During the test the companies examined real-time tracking and verification of transaction data. They also assessed procedures for receiving digital assets from overseas and completing related settlement activity once the assets arrived in South Korea. Kyobo Life characterized the exercise as South Korea’s first cross-border institutional stablecoin test conducted by an insurance company. That description originates with the firm and has not been confirmed by any regulatory authority.

Canton Network as the Settlement Layer

Canton Network provided the underlying infrastructure for the entire demonstration. The network is built specifically for institutions that need to keep transaction details private while still enabling controlled settlement and reconciliation. SBI has positioned Canton as a core element of its institutional blockchain strategy. In July 2026 the group renamed its subsidiary SBI Security Solutions as SBI Digital Practice and tasked the unit with developing financial applications, including settlement, tokenized securities and stablecoin-related services, on the Canton platform.

Other financial institutions have also explored the same network. Visa and Brale previously tested stablecoin settlement on Canton to evaluate private on-chain settlement. In South Korea, Shinhan Asset Management and Shinhan Investment & Securities have entered cooperation arrangements involving Canton to study tokenized Korean assets and overseas market access.

Separate Japan-Korea Network Initiative Underway

The Kyobo Life pilot is distinct from another SBI project announced in August 2026. SBI Digital Practice signed an agreement with South Korean blockchain infrastructure firm Nodeinfra to develop Project Musubi, a payment network intended to support yen- and won-denominated settlement on Canton Network. Project Musubi focuses on payment-versus-payment settlement and distributed netting. SBI Digital Practice is responsible for connecting Japanese institutions, while Nodeinfra develops settlement protocols on the Korean side. Like the Kyobo exercise, the initial phase of Musubi relies on test tokens.

SBI’s yen-side infrastructure is more advanced than the corresponding framework in South Korea. Earlier in 2026 the group launched its yen-pegged JPYSC stablecoin through SBI Shinsei Trust Bank and has since expanded its use into lending and tokenized-asset initiatives. On September 7, 2026, SBI reported that a portion of the trust assets backing JPYSC had begun to be invested in Japanese government bonds. South Korea continues to develop a comprehensive legal framework for won-backed stablecoins, with the Bank of Korea favoring bank-led issuance while lawmakers debate broader digital-asset legislation.

Plans for Continued Collaboration

Kyobo Life and SBI said they intend to explore further cooperation in digital asset exchanges, asset management and new business models based on the transaction structures tested during the pilot. No commercial launch timeline was provided. The relationship between the two firms predates the stablecoin work. SBI completed the acquisition of a stake in Kyobo Life on January 16, 2026, making the insurer an equity-method affiliate. The investment produced approximately 67.4 billion yen, or roughly 450 million U.S. dollars at prevailing rates, of bargain-purchase-related equity-method income in SBI’s fiscal fourth quarter. The companies have maintained a strategic investment relationship since 2007 and had previously expanded cooperation into tokenized securities.

The successful completion of the test-token pilot marks a technical milestone for institutional stablecoin corridors between Japan and South Korea, even as both jurisdictions continue to refine the regulatory conditions that would allow production deployment.