Japan’s first licensed yen stablecoin, JPYC, briefly traded for more than three times its intended value after being listed on South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit.
The JPYC/KRW market quickly became one of the platform’s busiest after trading began on 17 September. Designed to remain pegged to the Japanese yen at a 1:1 ratio, the token opened at a reference price of 8.81 won but immediately rose to 12 won.
Within a short period, JPYC had moved above 27 won. About an hour after the market opened, South Korean traders were paying 35.7 won for one token. A candle on Upbit’s exchange chart reached the 37-won range, valuing the stablecoin at more than three times its intended price.
Upbit had announced the listing that morning, offering JPYC trading against the won, tether and bitcoin. The launch followed two separate delays before trading eventually began.
JPYC is issued under Japan’s national regulatory framework and is backed by government bonds and bank deposits. Its purpose is to maintain a value equivalent to one Japanese yen. Before its Upbit listing, its most active market had been Uniswap, where it mainly traded against the stablecoin USDC.
The sharp price movement was driven by strong demand from Korean traders and the limited number of JPYC tokens initially available. With no effective arbitrage route immediately operating to bring the market price back towards its peg, the distortion also spread to Uniswap, where JPYC briefly approached the equivalent of three yen.
Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin have traded at premiums in South Korea before, but the usual mechanism for exploiting and eliminating such price differences was initially unavailable in this case.
That changed after JPYC Inc. restored reservations for new issuance. Traders could mint JPYC for one yen and transfer the tokens to markets where they were selling for two, three or even four times that amount.
The resulting increase in supply was substantial. JPYC’s dashboard showed that ¥1.68678 billion worth of tokens had been minted on 17 September, more than 12 times the previous single-day record of ¥139.16 million.
Over approximately 48 hours, the reported circulating supply grew from about ¥1.9 billion to more than ¥4.2 billion. As fresh tokens entered the market, the unusually large premium began to fade almost as quickly as it had appeared.
JPYC remained redeemable for one yen through JPYC Inc. throughout the episode. The sharp difference was confined to secondary-market trading, where demand initially overwhelmed supply.
The launch ultimately demonstrated the impact of heavy retail buying in a market with very limited liquidity. Once new issuance resumed, arbitrage mechanisms restored the price towards its intended peg.
However, JPYC’s first major overseas exchange listing still produced an unusual debut: a token designed to represent one yen briefly traded above three yen, with Upbit’s most extreme prices approaching four yen.
