V3NTURES

A Web³ Focused VC

[Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson]

🚨Elon Musk says DOGE will INVESTIGATE people who’ve gained HUGE wealth while working in government:

“It’s odd that there are people in the bureaucracy with a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow accrue tens of millions in net worth."

[Jesse Watters @JesseBWatters]

Wow… we finally got our hands on the raw @CBSNews interview with @KamalaHarris that was deceptively edited. And it did not disappoint…

[America @america]

BREAKING: Trump administration to offer all 2 million federal workers the chance to take a “deferred resignation” with a severance package of eight months of pay and benefits. 5-10% of the workforce is estimated to quit, which could lead to around $100 billion in savings.

[Watcher.Guru @WatcherGuru]

JUST IN: Ethereum Dencun upgrade now live, bringing reduced transaction fees on L2s.

[V3NTURES @V3NTURE]

Seems like throughout all the undisclosed deals Coinbase & SBI still have a good relationship.

[Jeremy Allaire - jerallaire.arc @jerallaire]

USDC is coming to Japan - Circle and SBI Holdings begin partnership combining USDC distribution, banking and Web3 tech proliferation for the Japan market. Official announcement here, my take on this below: https://t.co/gqq4KRLoWl

Why is this such a big deal?

In June of this year, the Japanese government laid out a vision for growing the Web3 industry in Japan, and crucially, put into effect new stablecoin laws for both domestic and foreign-issued stablecoins. Japan is the first major government in the world with this regulatory clarity in effect. Stablecoins that cannot meet the high-standards set out by the JFSA will not be allowed to circulate on Japanese markets.

These changes have dramatically opened up the opportunities for stablecoins and Web3 in the world’s 4th largest economy. The opportunity for Circle and USDC is significant.

To seize the opportunity, I am incredibly excited to be working with Chairman of SBI Holdings, Mr. Kitao-san, who is an extraordinary businessman, innovator and leader in Asia and the world. SBI Holdings operates one of the largest financial conglomerates in Japan, with the largest online retail brokerage, one of the largest digital banks, one of the largest retail FX platforms, a trust bank and more.

Importantly, Kitao-san is not a “johnny come lately” to crypto and blockchain tech. He has understood it and invested in it for nearly a decade. SBI Holdings already operates digital asset trading, brokerage and cross-border payments solutions.

Kitao-san and I have a shared vision for what the new internet financial system will look like and the impact it will have on commerce, trade and innovation.

What does the partnership exactly look like?

Our highest priority together is to bring USDC into the Japan market, in a regulated capacity, following the new JFSA stablecoin laws. As we have done throughout our history, we will work arm and arm with our partners and local regulators.

Once launched, USDC can become a stablecoin on Japan digital asset markets, and can be widely used in the on-chain economy growing in Japan as well, across many consumer-led Web3 product categories. We can also work with the very large established retail and crypto platforms that SBI Group operates to adopt USDC as a new digital dollar.

The dollar plays a crucial role in cross-border payments, FX and trading in the Japan market. This will extend into the adoption of digital dollars used on blockchain networks.

Another part of this is bringing direct banking from Japan to Circle’s USDC treasury and settlement operations, which translates to direct and local liquidity between JPY and USDC via the domestic banking system in Japan, building on the recent launch of the same in Singapore, with many more markets coming online soon.

Web3 Apps in Japan

We have also seen rapid growth in major consumer-facing companies in Japan looking to launch Web3 apps using digital tokens, smart contracts and self-custody digital wallets. To that end, Circle will also work with SBI to promote the growth and adoption of Circle’s full-stack Web3 Services suite, which provides and end-to-end development, deployment and operations platform for building and operating Web3 apps across chains. Think games, culture and consumer entertainment.

A General Comment on Regulatory Clarity

What you’re seeing here are the fruits of major governments who have established regulatory clarity for stablecoins. Good actors, working together, across the traditional and the new internet financial system to advance innovation with strong safeguards and supervision.

As this plays out around the world, expect to see many many more major partnerships with established Web2 companies and financial institutions who will make the leap into building and operating in the internet financial system.