Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC), part of Japan Exchange Group (JPX), will run a proof-of-concept with Mizuho Financial Group, Nomura Holdings and Digital Asset to evaluate Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs) as digital collateral on the Canton Network. The project will examine whether JGBs can be transferred and managed onchain while preserving their legal status under Japan’s Book-Entry Transfer Act and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. It will also test integration of existing systems with Canton’s blockchain infrastructure to enable more sophisticated, real-time collateral transactions that can operate 24/7, including cross-border flows.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency selected the initiative in February for support through its Payment Innovation Project within the FinTech PoC Hub. The trial places one of the world’s largest sovereign bond markets at the center of efforts to move collateral more efficiently across digital market infrastructure without undermining current legal and supervisory frameworks. No commercial rollout has been announced.
An earlier Canton pilot in December 2025 demonstrated tokenized US Treasuries being reused as collateral in real time among major dealers and market participants, including Bank of America and Société Générale, highlighting the potential to reuse high-grade government securities onchain across multiple participants. The new JGB trial applies that approach to Japan’s sovereign bond market.
Separately, the UK government in February appointed HSBC’s Orion platform to host issuance for its Digital Gilt Instrument pilot in the Bank of England’s Digital Securities Sandbox as it explores distributed ledger technology for sovereign debt.
Cointelegraph contacted JSCC and Digital Asset for comment but had not received responses by publication.