Karla Barker 
SBI Holdings and Startale Group said on October 16 that they joined Open Standard, the alliance behind the U.S. dollar stablecoin Open USD, or $OUSD. The two firms will explore a pilot that links $OUSD with JPYSC, the yen stablecoin issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank. They describe the work as an early step toward real-time yen-dollar settlement onchain.
What the pilot would connect
JPYSC is a trust-backed stablecoin built to comply with Japan’s Payment Services Act. $OUSD sits at the center of Open Standard’s push for a shared settlement layer for onchain finance. Linking the two could give institutions a regulated path between the world’s two most-traded currencies without relying on traditional foreign-exchange settlement rails. That is the idea, at least. No live service is attached to the announcement.
Open Standard launched in June 2026 with Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa as founding partners. The group says it now has more than 200 financial institutions, fintechs, and banks among its signatories. $OUSD is already live onchain, which the companies say provides a base for interoperability work with JPYSC.
Pilot only, no launch date
The announcement covers only a pilot exploration. SBI and Startale are not starting a commercial service, production settlement, or trading activity. They have not set a launch date. The companies said technical feasibility, regulatory considerations, and cost benefits still need to be validated. That keeps the effort at the exploration stage for now, even if the direction is clear.
SBI’s stablecoin footprint in Asia
The move builds on existing work. SBI Group was the first in Japan to offer the dollar stablecoins USDC and RLUSD. Startale has helped build real-world uses for JPYSC, including Japan’s first corporate bond paying interest and principal in the yen stablecoin. In July 2026, SBI Global Asset Management, DigiFT Tech, and Startale also demonstrated JPYSC-powered settlement for tokenized securities.
SBI Holdings chairman and president Yoshitaka Kitao linked the effort to the group’s SBI APAC Digital Economic Zone vision. He said participation in Open Standard and the proof of concept for $OUSD and JPYSC interoperability is an important step toward that goal.
What happens next
By joining Open Standard, SBI and Startale put JPYSC closer to global stablecoin infrastructure, including the network behind $OUSD’s launch for Stripe businesses. The companies said they will keep working with Open Standard’s partner network within applicable rules while the pilot remains at the exploration stage. For now, the market gets a signal, not a new settlement service.