Bank-Backed Stablecoin Plans Raise Deja Vu for Ex-Ripple Exec
Emi Yoshikawa, former vice president of strategic initiatives at Ripple, expressed a sense of déjà vu upon hearing about Goldman Sachs' and MUFG Bank's plans to launch their own US dollar stablecoin. The project involves a consortium of 21 banks.
In an X post, Yoshikawa mentioned that the situation reminded her of how traditional financial institutions (TradFi) often explored third-party blockchain solutions before creating isolated structures for control over liquidity, compliance, and transaction fees.
The context also overlaps with MUFG Bank's involvement in a domestic initiative to launch yen-denominated stablecoins using Progmat, a platform created within the bank. This development could enable international yen-to-dollar conversions within a controlled banking blockchain environment.
Yoshikawa noted that the banking consortium is targeting use cases already covered by regulated crypto-native instruments like Ripple's RLUSD, which has exceeded $2 billion in market capitalization and over $1 billion issued on the XRPL. The asset was also approved by Japanese regulator JFSA for trading through SBI VC Trade exchange.
The overlap could lead to market segmentation as banking tokens are aimed at internal settlements between consortium members and large corporations requiring direct interbank auditing.