The shift to Optimism is ZPG’s first deployment on a public blockchain since launching in 2022, and the start of its global rollout.<\/p>\n
Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities (MDC), a subsidiary of Japanese trading giant Mitsui & Co., Ltd., is launching its tokenized gold, silver, and platinum asset, Zipangcoin (ZPG), on Optimism\u2019s Ethereum Layer 2, OP Mainnet, according to a press release shared with The Defiant.<\/p>\n
ZPG has been issued under Japan’s regulatory framework since 2022 and currently runs on Miyabi<\/a>, a proprietary private blockchain developed by longtime Japanese centralized crypto exchange bitFlyer. <\/p>\n The OP Mainnet deployment marks the first time the asset will be issued in a public blockchain ecosystem. Per the release, Japanese CEX GMO Coin will list ZPG for trading on April 20.<\/p>\n MDC’s parent, Mitsui & Co., is a Fortune Global 500 conglomerate with a market cap of over $105 billion<\/a>. Berkshire Hathaway is its largest shareholder, the release notes.<\/p>\n MDC also stated in the release that the choice of OP Mainnet follows deliberate due diligence, highlighting that OP Stack chains processed over 6 billion transactions in 2025 \u2014\u00a029x growth in two years. <\/p>\n \u201cA different category of asset is arriving: DeFi protocols, consumer fintech, and now regulated financial instruments backed by physical assets from institutions that have operated in global commodity markets for over a century,\u201d the release reads.<\/p>\n According to DefiLlama<\/a> data, OP Mainnet currently has a total value locked in DeFi of over $393 million, making it the 17th largest chain in DeFi by TVL. The chain\u2019s stablecoin market cap is approaching $579 million, and its $30-day DEX volume is over $623 million.<\/p>\n Sho Miichi, MDC’s representative director & president, was quoted in the release saying: \u201cWe are pleased to partner with Optimism to bring a high-quality, commodity-linked digital asset from Japan to investors worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n Kyle Jenke, chief business officer at OP Labs, described Japan’s regulatory clarity as “one of the most compelling markets for on-chain finance,\u201d adding:<\/p>\n \u201cZipangcoin is a commodity-backed cryptoasset issued by Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities and will be the first cryptoasset issued by a Japanese company to launch on OP Mainnet.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The ZPG launch on Optimism fits into a broader wave of institutional-grade assets moving on-chain.<\/p>\n On-chain tokenized RWAs tripled to roughly $18.6 billion over the course of 2025<\/a>, with analysts projecting the market could reach $2 trillion by 2030. <\/p>\n A joint report this month from Keyrock and Securitize projected<\/a> that the distributed tokenized RWA market \u2014 referring to tokenized assets on public chains that are freely transferable \u2014 as a base case will grow from today\u2019s nearly $30 billion to $400 billion by 2030.<\/p>\n