Japan’s Mitsubishi Financial Group is creating its own cryptocurrency and will roll out a pilot proprietary version by 2019. This pilot version may be available for some 100,000 customers and the bank would allow them to make retail purchase and in the process handle all the possible bugs. A full roll-out may be planned for a later date. It will be called the MUFG Coin, and in the pilot stage, it can be used in simple transactions like retail buying. The coin users will be required to download an app that will convert fiat deposits into the token which is designed to be at parity with the yen. In Japan bitcoin core (BTC) is considered legal tender and is already used to buy everything from airline tickets to sushi. Mitsubishi Financial Group, however, claims its MUFG Coin is designed to be better than bitcoin and lower transaction costs significantly. Other banks are also in the field. Mizuho Bank is developing its J-Coin, slated for launch at the time of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Yahoo! Japan is already in the space and an e-commerce group DMM has a cryptocurrency exchange.
