SBI Goes Full Bank: $289M Bitbank Buyout Puts SBI on the Crypto Throne of Japan 👑

SBI Holdings has signed agreements to acquire full control of Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank through a ¥46.7 billion ($289 million) transaction, advancing a deal first disclosed in May that would form the country's largest crypto exchange by assets under custody. On Thursday, June 25, SBI said its wholly owned subsidiary SBICAH LLC will acquire shares from Bitbank CEO Noriyuki Hirosue and other shareholders before subscribing to a third-party share allotment.

The transaction covers 53,704 shares to be repurchased from existing Bitbank shareholders and a further 48,952 shares acquired through a capital increase. SBI will then buy back shares held by MIXI and Ceres, leaving it with 100% indirect ownership of Bitbank. SBI expects the share transfer to be completed in August 2026, with the remaining steps and capital increase targeted for October 2026, subject to clearance from Japan's Fair Trade Commission and other regulators.

SBI said combining Bitbank with its existing SBI VC Trade business would give the group roughly ¥1.1 trillion in assets under custody and about 2.92 million crypto accounts, based on figures from the end of April. The combined entity would rank first among Japanese crypto exchanges by assets under custody. Bitbank's daily trading volume has hovered below $50 million for most of the last four months, with the $BTC/JPY pair accounting for 39.5% of volume, followed by XRP/JPY and $ETH/JPY at 19.7% each, according to CoinGecko data.

The acquisition is the latest move in SBI's broader digital asset strategy, which includes crypto trading, stablecoins and tokenized financial markets. In February, SBI and Startale Group unveiled Strium, a layer-1 blockchain designed for 24/7 trading and settlement of tokenized equities and real-world assets. On Wednesday, the two companies launched JPYSC, a yen-pegged stablecoin issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank and distributed through SBI VC Trade, with public blockchain circulation to follow once legal and tax conditions are resolved.

The same day, Ripple and SBI Group rolled out the dollar-backed RLUSD stablecoin in Japan via SBI VC Trade, making it available to institutional and retail customers under Japan's regulatory framework for foreign-issued stablecoins. SBI has been a long-standing partner of Ripple and has promoted XRP payment solutions in Japan for roughly a decade, positioning the Bitbank deal as a step in expanding its regulated crypto footprint and customer base.