Hotlink Group, a publicly traded Japanese company, has announced that it has begun actively deploying capital into decentralized finance (DeFi) using the synthetic stablecoin USDe.
The company stated that its subsidiary, Nonagon Capital, made an initial investment for a total target of $4 million in DeFi activities. While USDC remains the usual institutional choice due to its regulatory status, Hotlink opted for the high-yield USDe.
The USDe Rationale: Yield trumps simple custody
Hotlink’s decision to use USDe, issued by Ethena, instead of established fiat-backed stablecoins such as USDC or USDT, demonstrates a strong commitment to maximizing returns in the management of its financial resources.
Historically, companies opting for stability opted for USDC (Circle) due to its fiat-backed structure and high transparency of reserves, which meet strict risk management requirements. USDT (Tether), despite its market dominance, has been under long-term regulatory scrutiny, making it generally unsuitable for public company balance sheets.
USDe uses a completely different, synthetic approach. It maintains its $1 peg using a strategy known as delta-neutral hedging, which combines long positions in assets such as Ether with equivalent short positions in derivatives. This structure allows USDe to generate high returns from deploying rewards and derivatives funding rates. Fiat-backed stablecoins like USDC cannot match these returns.
The USDe operation is an active management project that uses complex derivatives and staking mechanisms. Hotlink’s use of Nonagon Capital, a specialist Web3 venture firm, for execution is a necessity. It provides the expertise to manage the associated complexities while strategically capitalizing on high-return opportunities.
Business Strategy: From Bitcoin Speculation to Stablecoin Utility
Although some Japanese companies have adopted a ‘Bitcoin Treasury Strategy’, adding BTC to their balance sheets, the focus on stablecoins quickly became the core of Japan’s digital corporate finance strategy in 2025.
While Bitcoin is often thought of as a speculative asset or “digital gold,” stablecoins are treated as “programmable money.” Their utilities are focused on operational efficiency. Stablecoins provide faster and cheaper money transfer solutions for international money transfers and cross-border e-commerce than traditional banking. Furthermore, they enable the pursuit of higher returns in DeFi: capital efficiency that low-yield yen deposits cannot provide.
A Deloitte survey of North American CFOs conducted in the second quarter of 2025 supports this shift. The survey found that 39% of financial leaders cited “improved facilitation of cross-border transactions” as one of the key appeals of stablecoins.
Paxos Head of Strategy @whessert and Richard Rosenthal of @Deloitte joined the @AmerBanker podcast to discuss the benefits of #stablecoin adoption, use cases and where they think the market is going.
More information: https://t.co/XcFGf0pL1M pic.twitter.com/kVRIrvoxnB
— Paxos (@Paxos) November 16, 2023
Hotlink’s move represents a groundbreaking effort to address the fundamental treasury goals of asset value preservation and capital optimization by leveraging the power of stablecoins and DeFi.
JPYC’s Outlook: Potential for Domestic Adoption
The potential for Hotlink or other Japanese companies to acquire JPYC in addition to USDe is significant.
Japan’s revised Payment Services Act, which came into effect in June 2023, prepared the regulatory landscape for stablecoins. In September, reports suggested that JPYC Inc., the issuer of JPYC, would become the first domestic provider of fund transfer services supervised and approved by the government, which would issue the asset as an electronic payment instrument this fall.
The most compelling factor is the elimination of currency risk. Because the JPYC is denominated in yen, its use in yen-based transactions removes the currency volatility inherent in using dollar-pegged stablecoins – an important consideration for Japanese corporate finance.
JPYC’s regulatory status is robust. It offers Japanese companies more regulatory certainty and confidence than foreign USDC or USDT. While USDe focuses on a global dollar-based DeFi yield, the JPYC can become the foundational layer for domestic payments innovation and yen-based DeFi within a regulated framework. This dual-coin strategy – high returns abroad, regulated utility at home – is likely to accelerate in Japan’s corporate sector through 2026.
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