Binance Pay Expands USDT Payments Across Japan
Binance Pay is expanding its reach in Japan by allowing eligible overseas visitors to use Tether's USDT at most PayPay-supported merchants through the HIVEX payment network.
The service is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, giving international Binance Pay users another way to spend cryptocurrency while traveling in Japan. The arrangement is designed to keep the payment experience familiar for merchants: customers pay through Binance Pay, while merchants continue receiving settlement in Japanese yen.
According to Binance's comments reported by Cointelegraph, the exchange says Binance Pay is the first crypto payment service to gain access to PayPay-supported merchants through HIVEX. Merchants do not need to separately opt in to accept these payments.
How Binance Pay and HIVEX Connect
HIVEX is PayPay's interoperability service for overseas QR payment applications. It allows users of connected foreign payment services to scan or display PayPay QR codes when making purchases at participating merchants in Japan.
PayPay's HIVEX merchant documentation says the service is available to PayPay merchants except for money-only merchants and online-payment merchants. It also states that merchants do not need to complete a separate application to start accepting HIVEX payments, although individual merchants can disable the service.
The payment process is built around the existing PayPay QR infrastructure. Under PayPay's documented HIVEX flow, a customer can use a supported overseas application to scan a PayPay QR code, enter the payment amount in Japanese yen and complete the transaction. Merchants can confirm the completed payment through PayPay for Business.
For Binance Pay users, the important difference is that the customer can use USDT rather than needing to first convert the cryptocurrency into cash for each purchase.
Merchants Continue Receiving Japanese Yen
The integration separates the customer's payment asset from the merchant's settlement currency.
A visitor can use USDT through Binance Pay, while the merchant continues operating within the PayPay payment environment and receives settlement in yen. This means participating retailers do not need to hold USDT or manage a cryptocurrency wallet simply because an overseas customer uses Binance Pay.
That structure is consistent with HIVEX's existing purpose. PayPay describes HIVEX as a service designed to let visitors use overseas QR payment services at PayPay merchants in Japan. The company has gradually expanded the number of connected services, including UnionPay App, WeChat Pay and several payment applications used in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
PayPay said in September that approximately 80% of international visitors to Japan could use payment services from their home countries at PayPay merchants following the addition of UnionPay App.
PayPay and Binance Already Have a Japan Partnership
The new Binance Pay payment arrangement comes after a broader relationship between Binance Japan and PayPay.
In October 2025, Binance Japan announced a capital and business alliance with PayPay. As part of that agreement, PayPay acquired a 40% equity stake in Binance Japan.
The companies initially focused on connecting PayPay Money with Binance Japan's cryptocurrency services. Binance later expanded that integration so customers could deposit Japanese yen into Binance Japan through PayPay Money and withdraw yen back to PayPay.
That earlier relationship is different from the new Binance Pay-HIVEX arrangement. The Binance Japan integration concerns funding and withdrawing from a Binance Japan account using PayPay Money, while the new service is focused on allowing eligible overseas visitors to make purchases at PayPay-supported merchants using Binance Pay.
Japan's Large International Visitor Market
The payment expansion comes as Japan continues to attract a large number of international visitors.
Japan recorded a record 42.7 million international visitors in 2025, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. The agency's statistics report 42.68 million foreign travelers visiting Japan during the year.
Visitor numbers have remained substantial in 2026. The Japan National Tourism Organization's August 2026 statistics show 3,098,900 international arrivals in August, down 9.6% from the same month a year earlier. JNTO said the monthly total still represented strong demand across a number of markets, with 14 markets reaching their highest-ever August visitor totals.
The first eight months of 2026 brought international arrivals to about 27.6 million, according to the supplied report. That total was down 2.7% from the comparable period in 2025.
The size of Japan's tourism market gives payment interoperability an important practical use case. Travelers can encounter different banking systems, payment methods and currency-conversion requirements when making everyday purchases abroad. A crypto payment option connected to an existing merchant QR network can potentially reduce some of those payment steps for eligible users.
HIVEX Already Supports Multiple Overseas Payment Services
Binance Pay is joining an existing network rather than creating a separate merchant payment system from scratch.
PayPay's current HIVEX documentation lists nine connected overseas payment services, including E.SUN Wallet, iPASS MONEY, JKO PAY, Octopus, Plus Pay, PXPay Plus, Taishin Pay+, UnionPay App and WeChat Pay. These services are primarily associated with users from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.
PayPay launched HIVEX in 2023 to allow visitors using participating overseas payment services to pay at PayPay merchants. The company has subsequently added more payment providers, expanding the range of international users who can interact with the Japanese QR payment network.
The Binance Pay integration adds a cryptocurrency-based payment service to that model, with USDT serving as the payment asset on the customer side.
What the New Binance Pay Option Changes
For eligible overseas visitors, the main change is that USDT can now be used within the Binance Pay experience at a broad range of PayPay-supported physical merchants in Japan.
For merchants, the model is designed to avoid a major operational change. They can continue using PayPay's existing QR payment infrastructure and receive settlement in yen rather than taking direct exposure to USDT.
The rollout also builds on Binance's broader push to expand Binance Pay's use in travel and everyday payments. Binance has promoted payment use across travel-related services and other merchants, including campaigns featuring USDT-based spending and cashback.
The Japan integration therefore connects three existing pieces: Binance Pay for the crypto payment experience, HIVEX for payment interoperability and PayPay's merchant network for local QR payments.
Binance Pay's Japan Expansion
The new service gives eligible international visitors another way to spend USDT in Japan without requiring merchants to become direct cryptocurrency payment operators.
The arrangement also highlights how crypto payments can be integrated into existing payment infrastructure rather than requiring retailers to replace their current systems. Customers use a crypto payment interface, while merchants continue operating through a familiar QR payment network and receive yen settlement.
With Japan attracting tens of millions of international visitors each year and PayPay continuing to expand HIVEX coverage, the Binance Pay integration adds another payment option for crypto users traveling in the country.
