JPYC's South Korea Debut Sees Yen Stablecoin Trade at Over Three Times Intended Value

JPYC, Japan's first licensed yen stablecoin, made its debut on South Korea's largest crypto exchange, Upbit, and promptly shot higher. The stablecoin briefly fetched over 3 yen on Upbit as Korean traders piled in after its Sept. 17 debut.

At the time of listing, JPYC was priced at 8.81 won on Upbit, but it quickly jumped to 12 won, then ripped past 27 won, and within an hour, Korean traders were paying 35.7 won for a single token.

The distortion spilled over to Uniswap as well, where residual effects briefly pushed prices toward three yen. The missing arbitrage route did not stay missing for long, however. Once JPYC Inc. restored issuance reservations, traders had a powerful incentive to mint JPYC at 1 yen and send fresh supply toward markets paying two, three, or even four times that amount.

The response was enormous. Image source: jpyc-info.com/analytics