Japan's yen just went digital

PLUS: Oura vs. Ultrahuman smart ring war

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Jennifer Mossalgue & Rowan Cheung
September 02, 2025

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Japan Post Bank, the world’s largest savings institution, plans to launch a blockchain-based digital yen.

Dubbed DCJPY, it will let depositors instantly convert accounts into tokenized payments. The question is, could this be the model for how programmable money rewires banking worldwide?

In today’s tech rundown:

  • Japan’s blockchain-based digital yen

  • Oura vs. Ultrahuman smart ring war rages

  • Amazon invests $4.4B in New Zealand cloud

  • Fisker shuts nonprofit after EV startup fails

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

FINTECH NEWS

Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown

The Rundown: Japan Post Bank, one of the world’s largest retail banks, is reportedly launching a blockchain-backed digital yen called “DCJPY” by the end of fiscal 2026, allowing depositors to convert savings into instant, tokenized payments.

The details:

  • Depositors can convert savings into tokenized yen instantly, with each token fully backed by traditional deposits.

  • DCJPY runs on a permissioned blockchain developed with DeCurret DCP, accessible only to banks, businesses, and government bodies.

  • Backed by bank deposits and Japanese deposit insurance, the yen tokens offer a level of trust most CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) lack.

  • Western policymakers are watching closely, taking cues from Japan, China, and the EU on scaling digital cash.

Why it matters: More than 130 countries are pushing ahead with CBDCs amid tech and geopolitical shifts. By tying its digital yen to a regulated bank, Japan is turning itself into a proving ground for blending traditional finance with programmable money, and perhaps setting a precedent that could shape how others design their own rollouts.

OURA/ULTRAHUMAN

Image source: Oura

The Rundown: The smart ring battle just heated up even more. After being sued by Oura and banned in the U.S., Ultrahuman has hit back, filing a patent infringement case in India targeting Oura’s new Ring 4.

The details:

  • Ultrahuman claims Oura’s Ring 4 infringes its Indian patent covering the design, sensors, and onboard processing of the Ultrahuman AIR.

  • The launch of Oura Ring 4 in India sparked the legal move, with Ultrahuman accusing Oura of “indiscriminate” patent breaches.

  • The feud isn’t new: Oura previously won a U.S. patent case, securing a ban on Ultrahuman’s rings being sold in the U.S.; rival RingConn is also banned.

  • The stakes for both companies are high, with India’s fast-growing wearable tech market serving as a fresh battleground after Oura’s U.S. victory.

Why it matters: The heart of Ultrahuman’s claim lies in proprietary tech for sleep, recovery, and glucose, as well as women’s health and circadian rhythm tools, which Ultrahuman says Oura has mimicked and locked behind a subscription paywall. For its part, Oura counters that the claims are a distraction from its U.S. defeat and lack merit.

AMAZON

Image source: Amazon Web Services

The Rundown: Amazon Web Services has officially landed in New Zealand, kicking off its long-awaited hyperscale cloud rollout and reviving a NZ$7.5B ($4.4B) investment first announced in 2021.

The details:

  • Kiwi organizations now get local access to cloud storage, AI, and machine learning, cutting latency and keeping sensitive data closer to home.

  • The launch is expected to boost New Zealand’s GDP by NZ$10.8B and create over 1K tech jobs, from engineers to operations staff.

  • The region opens with three availability zones, linking New Zealand to AWS’s global network across 38+ countries.

  • Powered by 100% renewable energy via Mercury NZ’s Turitea South wind farm, the rollout also blends cloud scale with green credentials.

Why it matters: Amazon’s expansion answers a pressing need for data sovereignty, ultra-low latency, and security, while giving New Zealand a shot at revitalizing its economy and drawing in foreign investment. With plans to train 100K locals in cloud skills, the Kiwi cloud is officially open for business.

FISKER

Image source: MB-one/Wikimedia Commons

The Rundown: Henrik Fisker, the founder of the recently collapsed EV startup Fisker, and his wife, Geeta, quietly shuttered their private charity, The Geeta & Henrik Fisker Foundation, just months after the company filed for bankruptcy, TechCrunch reports.

The details:

  • The foundation launched in late 2021 to drive “innovation in healthcare, education, sustainability, mobility, and all causes that help support the planet.”

  • Its launch was fueled by a transfer of close to $4M in Fisker Inc. stock and a small cash donation from the Fiskers.

  • Over its three-year life, the foundation made only about $100K in grants, mainly due to the rapid devaluation of its Fisker stock holdings.

  • Fisker Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2024 after failing to secure a partnership with Nissan and facing ongoing financial distress.

Why it matters: Despite lofty goals and a mission fitting Fisker’s green mobility image, the foundation quietly shut down, publicly unacknowledged by the Fiskers — a final, muted chapter in the EV entrepreneur’s turbulent saga of ambitious promises fading amid financial turmoil.

QUICK HITS

China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba’s June quarter profits exceeded expectations, boosting its U.S. shares by nearly 13% and Hong Kong shares by over 19%.

Meta’s high-profile Superintelligence Labs team is reportedly facing early staff departures and tensions with data partner Scale AI in a rocky start for the new division.

Alibaba is developing a new AI chip, with plans to invest $53.1B in AI over the next three years while continuing to source semiconductors from vendors like Nvidia.

Tesla is appealing a jury verdict that found it partly liable for a fatal Enhanced Autopilot crash and ordered it to pay $242.5M in damages.

OpenAI is planning to build a massive 1-gigawatt data center and establish an office in India as part of its global “Stargate” infrastructure push, Bloomberg reports.

Flip, the California startup that soared to a $1B valuation in 2024 with its TikTok-style shopping and review app, has now shuttered operations.

Exelixis, a leading California-based anti-cancer biotech firm, is laying off 130 workers and consolidating its operations while also shutting down its Pennsylvania site.

Novo Nordisk secured global rights to Replicate Bioscience’s self-replicating RNA tech in a deal worth up to $550M, targeting new therapies for obesity and diabetes.

Finland launched the world’s largest industrial-scale sand battery in Pornainen, replacing a woodchip plant and aiming to cut local heating emissions by up to 70%.

California reached a landmark agreement with Uber and Lyft, enabling rideshare drivers to unionize while retaining their status as independent contractors.

COMMUNITY

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Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team

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