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Netstars
1 months agoNews Editor

Netstars’ Japan stablecoin payment rollout offers a regulatory and AML blueprint for Taiwan banks

A report by Jason Kuo of the Digital Asset Development Research Center (DADRC), published by ABMedia, tracks how Japanese payment gateway provider Netstars expanded stablecoin acceptance from a narrow airport pilot to a broader multi-chain, multi-token setup in just seven months. The piece argues that the core lesson is not payment integration itself, but how compliance risk grows every time an operator adds another blockchain, another wallet, or another token. Netstars’ path moved from a USDC-only pilot on Solana at two Haneda Airport Terminal 3 stores, to a broader StarPay-X concept covering additional chains, and then to full acceptance of USDC, USDT, and JPYC on Solana and Polygon, while merchants continued to see only yen pricing and yen settlement. DADRC says Japan’s Financial Services Agency made that possible by defining which entities can issue, handle, sell, exchange, and safeguard stablecoins under the revised Payment Services Act. For Taiwan, the report points to five practical issues: keeping stablecoins off domestic bank balance sheets before a dedicated law takes effect, reusing existing cross-border payment infrastructure, planning for multi-wallet acceptance from day one, setting transaction limits based on source of funds and risk tier, and consulting regulators before filing any proposal.

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Netstars’ Japan stablecoin payment rollout offers a regulatory and AML blueprint for Taiwan banks
stablecoins
2 months agoNews Editor

Stablecoins and RWA Are Moving From Tokenized Assets to Real-World Payments

A Foresight article argues that the story around stablecoins and real-world assets, or RWA, is shifting away from simply issuing more tokens and toward building a financial network that can actually function end to end. The piece says the market is now focusing on whether tokenized assets can be issued in compliance, traded with investor rights intact, settled onchain, and eventually used in everyday payment scenarios. It points to several recent developments across traditional finance and crypto. The New York Stock Exchange said in January that it was developing a tokenized securities platform designed to support shareholder rights, 24/7 trading, fractional shares, instant settlement, and stablecoin-based cash settlement. Later, it brought in Securitize and tZERO to add infrastructure around transfer agency, broker-dealer services, securities registration, and onchain settlement. On the crypto side, Bitfinex Securities recently launched five products that give qualified investors economic exposure to listed companies including Strategy and Metaplanet. The article also highlights a payments push in Japan. HashPort and Lawson tested an in-store yen stablecoin payment in Tokyo in August, while NETSTARS completed a Stablecoin Pay proof of concept at another Lawson store. On Sept. 3, imToken and NETSTARS signed an MOU to explore connecting imToken wallet infrastructure with Stablecoin Pay.

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Stablecoins and RWA Are Moving From Tokenized Assets to Real-World Payments
Lawson
3 months agoNews Editor

Lawson tests in-store stablecoin payments again, adding USDT while Japan’s rules remain unresolved

Lawson and NetStars ran a second-stage stablecoin payment trial at a Lawson convenience store on Aug. 17, expanding an earlier proof of concept that had used only JPYC on Polygon. This round tested three stablecoins — USDC, USDT and JPYC — across Solana, Morph and Polygon, with MetaMask used on the customer side and NetStars’ Stablecoin Pay linked to Lawson’s existing POS system. According to the companies, the trial was designed to check whether stablecoin payments could be processed in a physical retail setting without disrupting normal store operations. NetStars said the payments confirmed during interviews were generally completed within five seconds, a key metric for busy convenience store checkout flows. Store settlement was still handled in Japanese yen, meaning customers paid in stablecoins while Lawson received yen, similar to conventional barcode payment rails. The most sensitive point is USDT. The report notes that USDT is not included in the latest list of assets that registered electronic payment instrument service providers in Japan may handle. NetStars COO Hisahiro Chofuku said the model relies on users paying from self-custodied wallets and that the company does not hold customer assets as a financial institution. Even so, NetStars is still consulting Japan’s Financial Services Agency on how USDT payments should be treated legally and how received USDT or USDC would be converted safely into yen. Lawson said commercialization timing has not been decided.

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Lawson tests in-store stablecoin payments again, adding USDT while Japan’s rules remain unresolved
Lawson
4 months agoNews Editor

Lawson to test yen stablecoin payments in August as Netstars opens merchant service

Lawson, the Japanese convenience store operator, plans to begin testing yen-denominated stablecoin payments in August at its Lawson Takanawa Gateway City store in Tokyo, according to a report cited by BlockBeats from Cointelegraph. The pilot will be carried out under an agreement involving HashPort, Lawson, and KDDI. Participants will use HashPort’s non-custodial wallet, while the store will process transactions through HashPort’s checkout system, meaning merchants do not need to open or manage a crypto wallet. Separately, Japanese payments company Netstars has launched Stablecoin Pay and is accepting applications from merchants that want to take multiple stablecoins. At launch, the service supports USDC, USDT, and the yen-denominated stablecoin JPYC on the Solana and Polygon networks. MetaMask is listed as the supported wallet, and the merchant payment fee is set at 0.98%. The update points to a broader push to bring stablecoin-based payments into retail and merchant checkout flows in Japan through existing payment infrastructure rather than direct wallet management by stores.

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Lawson to test yen stablecoin payments in August as Netstars opens merchant service