Japan's largest security-token platform, Progmat, completed the migration of ¥452 billion ($2.8 billion) in regulated digital securities from R3's Corda 5 distributed ledger to a dedicated Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain in July 2026. The operation, codenamed Project Keystone, moved every active tok...
"The completion of this Avalanche integration represents a landmark moment where the Japanese security token market connects directly with the global real-world asset (RWA) ecosystem." — Tatsuya Saito, Founder and CEO, Progmat
Japan's largest security-token platform, Progmat, completed the migration of ¥452 billion ($2.8 billion) in regulated digital securities from R3's Corda 5 distributed ledger to a dedicated Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain in July 2026. The operation, codenamed Project Keystone, moved every active tokenized real estate trust, corporate bond, and private equity instrument on the platform to an EVM-compatible environment without operational disruption. It is the single largest migration of regulated financial assets from a private to a public blockchain recorded to date.
The migration is not an isolated event. It anchors a broader convergence across Japan's financial system: a Progmat-led consortium of 40+ institutions — including MUFG, Mizuho, SMBC, BlackRock Japan, and Daiwa Securities — is now studying the tokenization of Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs), targeting Japan's ¥240 trillion ($1.6 trillion) repo market. Separately, SBI Holdings partnered with Ondo Finance on July 16 to tokenize Japanese equities for on-chain settlement using JPYSC, Japan's first trust-type yen stablecoin, which launched on June 24, 2026. The cumulative effect positions Japan as the most advanced jurisdiction globally for regulated on-chain securities infrastructure.
Progmat, founded by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and backed by Japan's three megabanks (MUFG, SMBC, Mizuho), along with SBI Holdings, Tokyo Stock Exchange operator JPX, and NTT Data, controls 53.4% of Japan's security-token deals by count and 64.6% by total issuance value. It is the country's dominant tokenization infrastructure provider.
Project Keystone began in autumn 2025 and completed on schedule in July 2026. The migration involved:
The technical architecture introduced a "mediator" layer separating business logic from blockchain dependencies. This design choice allows Progmat to swap underlying ledger infrastructure without rewriting application code — a lesson from the Corda migration itself. All Java-based Corda smart contracts were converted to Solidity.
Nick Mussallem, CEO of AvaCloud, stated that executing a full migration of over ¥452 billion in regulated securities without operational disruption "sets a new benchmark for institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure."
According to the BOOSTRY/Nomura Japan Security Token Market Report for FY2025 (April 2025–March 2026):
| Metric | FY2025 | Cumulative | |--------|--------|------------| | Issuance volume | ¥165 billion | ¥333.3 billion | | Tokens issued | 24 | 82 | | Deals exceeding ¥10B | 7 | — |
The asset class breakdown for cumulative issuance:
The cumulative market roughly doubled year-over-year. BOOSTRY projects FY2026 issuance at ¥200 billion, which would bring the cumulative total to approximately ¥530 billion. Industry-wide projections place the sector above ¥1.05 trillion (~$7 billion) by end of calendar year 2026.
The Osaka Digital Exchange (ODX), backed by SBI Holdings, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Nomura, and Daiwa Securities, operates the START secondary trading platform. As of March 2026, START listed 8 security tokens with a combined market capitalization of ¥33.6 billion. The platform is expanding from real estate tokens into aircraft, ships, and renewable energy assets.
A notable individual transaction: MUFG's trust banking unit is tokenizing a ¥100 billion ($681 million) high-rise skyscraper in Osaka, converting it into a private REIT with blockchain-based fractional ownership.
In May 2026, Progmat's Digital Asset Co-Creation Consortium launched a working group to study the tokenization of Japanese Government Bonds and on-chain repo settlement. The participants represent the core of Japan's financial system:
The initiative targets Japan's repo market, valued at approximately ¥240 trillion ($1.6 trillion) — roughly 10% of the $16 trillion global repo market. The technical approach tokenizes the economic rights linked to book-entry government bonds rather than the bonds themselves, using stablecoins as the settlement medium to enable same-day (T+0) settlement.
Roadmap:
If implemented, this would create 24/7 settlement infrastructure for government debt — a function currently constrained by business-hour operations and T+1 or T+2 settlement cycles.
On July 16, 2026, SBI Holdings announced a strategic partnership with Ondo Finance to tokenize Japanese financial assets, including listed equities, for on-chain distribution. The deal has two components:
JPYSC launched on June 24, 2026, as Japan's first trust-type yen stablecoin. Key specifications:
The SBI initiative runs in parallel with a separate plan to create a 24/7, ¥1-minimum fractional stock market using digital securities. No other jurisdiction currently offers regulated on-chain equity trading with round-the-clock availability and yen stablecoin settlement.
The global tokenized RWA market reached $27.65 billion in April 2026, according to industry data, growing 4.07% during a month when most crypto sectors contracted. The composition:
| Asset Class | Value | Share | |-------------|-------|-------| | U.S. Treasury debt | $12.78B | 46% | | Commodities | $5.4B | 20% | | Private credit | ~$4B | 14% | | Real estate | ~$3B | 11% | | Equities | ~$1B | 4% | | Other | ~$1.5B | 5% |
Japan's cumulative security-token issuance of ¥333.3 billion (~$2.2 billion) as of March 2026 represents approximately 8% of the global RWA market — a disproportionate share for a single jurisdiction. Importantly, Japan's tokens are regulated financial instruments under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), not synthetic on-chain representations. They carry legal enforceability that most global RWA tokens lack.
BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized fund passed $2.5 billion in AUM during 2026. Progmat's ¥452 billion in migrated assets exceeds BUIDL's total AUM, though the comparison is imperfect: BUIDL is a single fund, while Progmat is a multi-issuer platform.
BCG projects the global tokenized asset market at $10 trillion by 2030. At Japan's current growth trajectory — cumulative issuance roughly doubling annually — the country is positioned to capture a meaningful share of that figure.
Progmat's migration from Corda to Avalanche is a case study in the limitations of private enterprise blockchains for capital markets. Three factors drove the decision:
1. Composability. Corda's permissioned architecture prevented interoperability with the broader on-chain ecosystem. Tokenized assets on Corda could not interact with DeFi protocols, stablecoins on public chains, or cross-chain settlement networks. The move to EVM compatibility opens access to these rails.
2. Developer ecosystem. Corda's Java/Kotlin-based smart contract language (CorDapps) had a smaller developer pool than Solidity/EVM. Progmat's internal teams cited the difficulty of recruiting Corda-specialized engineers as a constraint.
3. Speed. Avalanche's sub-2-second finality and 3-5x faster rights transfers directly reduce settlement risk in capital markets operations.
This mirrors a broader pattern. Swift's deployment of a Hyperledger Besu-based ledger with 17 banks, DTCC's tokenization pilots on public-chain-adjacent infrastructure, and now Progmat's Avalanche move all point in the same direction: institutional capital markets infrastructure is converging on EVM-compatible public or semi-public chains. The era of isolated private ledgers for tokenized securities appears to be closing.
Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) provides a regulatory environment that directly enables this activity. Key features:
The combination of clear securities regulation, operational stablecoin frameworks, and pending tax reform creates conditions that no other major jurisdiction currently matches. The United States, by comparison, remains without final stablecoin legislation (the GENIUS Act missed its deadline), and the EU's MiCA framework does not yet address tokenized securities with comparable specificity.
Japan's tokenized securities market has moved past the pilot phase. Progmat's ¥452 billion migration to Avalanche, the JGB tokenization working group, and SBI's yen stablecoin-settled equity tokenization represent production-grade infrastructure serving regulated financial institutions under existing securities law. The cumulative issuance of ¥333.3 billion across 82 tokens, dominated by real estate trusts and corporate bonds, reflects genuine economic activity rather than speculative token creation.
The convergence of three elements — a dominant platform on public chain rails, a yen stablecoin for settlement, and regulatory clarity from the FSA — creates conditions for Japan to become the reference jurisdiction for regulated on-chain securities. Whether that position holds depends on execution of the JGB tokenization roadmap by year-end and the FSA's completion of tax reform. The infrastructure, for the first time, is in place.