Slow growth in transaction numbers caused by the pandemic made it difficult to expand the business at the pace originally planned.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of Japan’s largest financial institutions, said it will suspend its high-speed blockchain payment network venture GO-NET Japan and close down the business.
Slow growth in the number of transactions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to expand the business at the pace originally planned, MUFG said Wednesday.
Furthermore, the network struggled to find a fit in the internet of things (IoT) market, which it planned to incorporate.
“As a result, the business is not expected to be able to achieve profitability in a reasonable timeframe,” MUFG said. “GO-NET Japan will suspend operations and liquidation procedures of GO-NET and GO-NET Japan will proceed thereafter.”
The Global Open Network (GO-NET) venture with Cambridge, Mass.-based tech firm Akamai was announced in November 2020 with the aim of providing cheaper, more efficient payment services. GO-NET said the platform could handle 100,000 transactions a second and could be expanded to reach as high as 10 million a second for small payments.
This news does not signal the end MUFG’s activity in the blockchain and digital currency industries. Its trust banking arm earlier this month announced plans to issue a stablecoin pegged to the yen as a means of payment to enable instant settlement of security transactions.