A pedestrian walks past signage for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. displayed outside the companies' headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ confirmed on Tuesday it is conducting experiments on a digital currency utilizing the technology behind the virtual currency bitcoin. The statement came following a report from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper last week that the bank will soon issue a virtual currency that will be available next year. "Regarding the speculation (in) media reports, these reports are not based on any announcement by MUFG, and the details have not been decided," the bank's spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

MUFG is an abbreviation of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the parent company of the bank. "However we can only say that it's true that MUFG is conducting demonstration experiments on the 'Coin' within the company utilizing a block chain technology." The report originally published in Japanese also said users will be able to withdraw money from their bank accounts into an app on their smartphones. The money will be converted at a rate of one MUFG coin to 1 yen.