February 24, 2022
By Sharan Kaur Phillora
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of Japan’s largest financial institutions, said in a press release that it will suspend its high-speed blockchain payment network venture, GO-NET Japan, and close down the business.
Here’s what we know:
- The announcement of the closure came in a little less than three years since the creation of GO-NET (or Global Open Network), which was launched to provide “an open platform with high scalability and multi-connectivity data processing in response to the rise of IoT,” the bank said.
- The slow growth of payment transactions stemming from factors such as the COVID pandemic made it tough for GO-NET to develop its business at the scale it had envisioned.
- “In addition, in the IoT business, which GO-NET Japan had planned to expand in future, it struggled to find a fit to the growing market needs with its high scalability and multi-connectivity data processing blockchain, and commercialization of the product is expected to take longer than anticipated,” the bank said.
- Due to this GO-NET “is not expected to be able to achieve profitability in a reasonable time frame,” MUFG said. They further stated that from there, the plan is to liquidate GO-NET Japan and its parent, GO-NET.
- MUFG, which is Japan’s largest bank in terms of assets, offers commercial banking, trust banking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, leasing, and other financial services. The company also has the biggest overseas network of any Japanese bank, with offices and subsidiaries across 50-plus countries.
- Earlier this month, MUFG said it was planning to issue a stablecoin called Progmacoin pegged to the yen under the revised Settlements and Payment System Act due to go into effect in 2023 which will be used for clearing and settlements of digital securities. It is designed to provide instant settlement of securities trades by using the blockchain for trading and a cryptocurrency for payment.
About the author
Sharan Kaur Phillora’s thirst for knowledge has led her to study many different subjects, including NFTs and Blockchain technology – two emerging technologies that will change how we interact with each other in the future. When she isn’t exploring a new idea or concept, she enjoys reading literary masterpieces.
Share
