Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) is preparing to shut down its blockchain payment network project, citing slow business growth.
Japan’s largest bank MUFG has announced that it has begun suspending its Global Open Network Japan (GO-NET Japan) blockchain payment network.
MUFG and US-based cloud service company Akamai Technologies established GO-NET Japan in 2019 as a subsidiary of GO-NET. At that time, the blockchain payment network was designed to provide one million transactions per second with Internet of Things (IoT) integration.
MUFG stated that three years after the establishment of the payment network, it will act in coordination with the partners before liquidating both GO-NET and the affiliate network.
The bank cited the slow growth of the network caused by various factors, including the COVID-19 outbreak, as the reason for abandoning the blockchain payment network.
MUFG emphasized that GO-NET Japan failed to achieve the required network impact for scaling. The banking giant therefore concluded that there would be no tangible commercial success in a reasonable time.
MUFG stressed that despite the GO-NET dissolution, they will continue other initiatives in the emerging financial landscape. The bank partnered with Coinbase last year to launch a crypto exchange in Japan.
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