JPYC's Wild Upbit Debut Sees Brief Threefold Premium

JPYC, Japan's first licensed yen stablecoin, had its Upbit debut on September 17 and promptly shot higher, briefly reaching over three times its intended value. The JPYC/KRW pair became one of the most active markets on the exchange.

The trading opened at a reference price of 8.81 won, but Korean traders quickly drove the price up to 35.7 won within an hour. Upbit's chart shows a candle wick touching the 37 won range, where JPYC traded at more than three times its peg with the yen.

The distortion spilled over to Uniswap as well, where residual effects pushed prices toward three yen. However, once JPYC Inc. restored issuance reservations, traders minted fresh supply and sent it toward markets paying higher premiums. The response was enormous: ¥1.68678 billion was minted on September 17 alone, more than 12 times the previous single-day record of ¥139.16 million.

Within roughly 48 hours, circulating supply climbed from about ¥1.9 billion to over ¥4.2 billion, and the extraordinary premium began disappearing almost as quickly as it had arrived.