Market | March 18, 2026

SBI Opens USDC Lending In Japan

SBI VC Trade said Japanese users will be able to lend USDC to the platform under fixed-term agreements, giving Circle's stablecoin a new retail yield product inside a licensed domestic venue.

SBI VC Trade will let retail users in Japan lend USDC directly to the platform under fixed-term agreements, opening a new consumer use case for dollar stablecoins inside one of the country's licensed crypto venues. The company said the service goes live Thursday and will pay interest on loans of up to 5,000 USDC per offering.

It is a lending product, not a deposit product. Users are taking direct counterparty risk to SBI VC Trade, and the company says it may relend the borrowed USDC as part of its own operations. SBI also says the assets do not carry the same segregation protections as bank deposits and may not be fully recoverable if the platform fails. During the fixed term, users cannot withdraw or transfer the funds.