Overview
- Binance announced on Wednesday that starting September 30, 2026 about 48 million eligible overseas Binance Pay users from more than 100 countries can pay with crypto at millions of PayPay-supported merchant locations in Japan.
- HIVEX, developed by TBCASoft, acts as the translation layer that converts users’ digital assets into Japanese yen before settlement so merchants receive yen rather than cryptocurrency.
- Shoppers can pay by scanning existing PayPay QR codes or showing a Binance payment code and merchants do not need to change their point-of-sale systems or sign up for new services to accept these payments.
- Regulatory duties are split: Binance Pay handles user-side checks such as identity verification and sanctions screening while HIVEX and its local partners manage merchant-side compliance and onboarding under Japanese rules.
- The rollout builds on HIVEX’s prior QR interoperability since 2023 and Binance’s local fiat rails added in 2025, and it aims to boost travel spending and stablecoin use while remaining limited to eligible inbound visitors rather than Japan residents.