Binance Pay Connects Millions of PayPay Merchants in Japan Through HIVEX, With Merchants Settling in Yen

Binance Pay has opened crypto payments to eligible overseas users at millions of PayPay-supported merchant locations across Japan, connecting roughly 48 million Binance Pay users from more than 100 countries and regions to the country’s dominant QR payment network through the HIVEX payment infrastructure.

Binance announced on Sept. 30 that merchants will continue receiving settlement in Japanese yen, leaving the crypto side of the transaction with Binance Pay and the connected payment infrastructure. The service is designed for overseas travelers and can be used at restaurants, stores, accommodation and other businesses where the supported PayPay payment flow is available.

How the payment flow works

Users can pay directly from their Binance accounts by scanning a merchant’s PayPay QR code through Binance Pay, or, where supported, display a payment code in the Binance app for the merchant to scan. Japanese residents are not eligible for the feature, according to Binance. Overseas users must come from a jurisdiction where Binance Pay is supported and complete the exchange’s identity verification process.

HIVEX provides the connection between Binance Pay and PayPay’s merchant network. PayPay describes it as a service that lets visitors use supported overseas QR payment applications at participating merchants in Japan, so businesses do not need to separately integrate each foreign wallet. The system had already connected several overseas payment services to PayPay before Binance joined, including UnionPay QR payments added earlier in September for visitors using the UnionPay App.

Following the UnionPay addition, PayPay said its merchant network could receive payments from 36 overseas cashless services covering 17 countries and regions, which the company estimated accounted for approximately 80% of international visitors to Japan. Binance Pay brings a different kind of payment source into that infrastructure, since users can spend supported digital assets directly from their exchange accounts.

Merchants stay in yen

For merchants, the payment flow remains tied to the local PayPay system even when a Binance Pay user funds a purchase with digital assets. Merchants receive Japanese yen rather than cryptocurrency, removing any need for individual businesses to hold or process digital assets themselves.

PayPay’s merchant guidance says HIVEX transactions follow a similar process to ordinary PayPay payments, and merchants can confirm completion through PayPay for Business. Eligible merchants do not need to submit a separate application to begin receiving HIVEX payments, though businesses can disable the service through their settings. The setup gives Binance Pay access to existing payment infrastructure instead of requiring the exchange to sign up Japanese restaurants, hotels and retailers one by one.

Thomas Gregory, Binance’s vice president of payments and fiat, described Japan as one of the leading destinations for connected cashless payments. “Our integration with PayPay reflects a shared vision of making payments more seamless, borderless, and accessible for travelers visiting the country,” Gregory said, adding that the arrangement lets PayPay-supported merchants serve international customers through their existing payment setup.

A deepening Binance-PayPay relationship

The rollout follows an existing relationship between PayPay and Binance’s Japanese operation. SoftBank group company PayPay acquired a 40% stake in Binance Japan in October 2025 under a capital and business alliance, when PayPay had more than 70 million users in Japan. Their first services focused on moving money between PayPay and Binance Japan rather than spending crypto at merchants: Binance Japan users gained the ability to buy cryptocurrency with PayPay Money and PayPay Points, with sale proceeds transferable back into PayPay.

The companies expanded that connection in April 2026 by allowing customers to deposit Japanese yen into Binance Japan through PayPay Money before placing orders, and Binance Japan raised the instant deposit limits in August, lifting the 24-hour ceiling from 300,000 yen to 1 million yen and the 30-day limit from 1 million yen to 2 million yen. The Sept. 30 service serves a different user group, as the PayPay QR feature through HIVEX is limited to eligible international visitors rather than residents using Binance Japan.

Japan’s crypto payment experiments widen

The integration lands amid a broader wave of payment experiments in Japan’s retail sector. Convenience store operator Lawson tested stablecoin payments using JPYC, USDC and USDT at two Tokyo locations in August, connecting digital wallets directly with existing point-of-sale registers so staff could scan a wallet barcode through normal checkout rather than a separate crypto terminal. Lawson said it would assess transaction speed, system stability and store operations before deciding on wider deployment.

Card network JCB partnered with Circle in July to test USDC for internal treasury transfers and merchant payments, starting with JCB’s own cross-border fund transfers before potential retail use. Binance Pay’s route differs from both: rather than piloting a new settlement rail, it connects overseas crypto users to an established QR network that already handles mass-scale merchant volume.

Binance has been building similar links between its payment service and local systems worldwide. Binance Research said in April that Binance Pay had reached more than 21 million merchants globally and had connected with domestic payment networks including Brazil’s Pix, part of a payments-and-stablecoins strategy the company outlined earlier this year.

Market context at publication time: Bitcoin traded near 83,942 USD, Ether near 2,698.58 USD and Solana near 119.61 USD on Binance at 12:00 UTC, according to the exchange’s spot price data.

The PayPay interoperability through HIVEX is available from Sept. 30 to eligible Binance Pay users visiting Japan.