Kaia joins Japan Security Token Association to target RWA market

Kaia announced Wednesday that it has joined the Japan Security Token Association (JSTA) as a member, positioning itself to pursue the local real-world asset (RWA) and security token market.

The blockchain firm plans to build on its success onboarding the yen-backed stablecoin JPYC, expanding cooperation with Japanese financial and industrial institutions and broadening its digital asset infrastructure ecosystem.

JSTA is an industry association for companies and institutions involved in Japanese security tokens and RWA. Its members include Mitsui Fudosan, Mizuho Securities, MUFG, Securitize Japan, Osaka Digital Exchange, Mitsubishi Corp. and Aozora Bank.

With participants spanning securities firms, real estate, trading houses, trust companies and legal services, the association serves as a forum for discussing collaboration models in the security token and RWA space.

Kaia became the top chain by JPYC issuance volume within a month of launching JPYC mainnet issuance in May. The volume of JPYC circulating on the Kaia chain has surpassed 330 million yen ($2.04 million).

The per-transaction issuance cap for JPYC has also been eased to 1 million yen, expanding potential institutional use cases such as business-to-business payments and overseas remittances. Kaia said it aims to grow beyond supporting stablecoin issuance into an infrastructure chain that underpins actual payment and remittance applications.

Kaia had earlier become the first blockchain mainnet to join the Japan Blockchain Association (JBA) as a full member, laying the groundwork for its local business operations.

UniFi, a stablecoin super app developed with Line Next, is another pillar of Kaia's Japan expansion. Available as a Line messenger mini-app, UniFi supports USDT as well as Japan's JPYC and Indonesia's IDRX.

"We plan to introduce a variety of products within the Kaia ecosystem," said Seo Sang-min, chair of the Kaia Foundation. "As Japan is actively promoting stablecoin market development at the policy level, we will work to bring a wide range of stablecoin-based products onto the Kaia chain."

Go Masuda, chair of JSTA, said he hopes Kaia's membership will "invigorate cooperation and knowledge sharing across the Asian digital asset market, including Japan and South Korea, and lead to the creation of new use cases and broader market development."

Meanwhile, JPYC is a yen-pegged stablecoin issued under a license following the revised Japanese Payment Services Act that took effect in October last year. Its cumulative issuance has surpassed 3.3 billion yen.