Yen on the Run: Japanese Firms Trade Cash Cushions for $BTC and XRP 🏃‍♂️💱

SBI VC Trade said Tuesday that registered accounts across its VCTRADE and BITPOINT services have passed 2 million, roughly double the 1 million it counted in 2025, as Japanese companies add bitcoin and XRP to corporate treasuries to diversify reserves beyond a weakening yen. The crypto arm of Tokyo-based SBI Holdings reported the milestone and said its SBIVC for Prime corporate service has seen rising uptake, including from firms that distribute bitcoin or XRP through shareholder-perk programs.

The 2 million figure combines VCTRADE and BITPOINT and follows SBI VC Trade's April 2026 merger with sister firm BitPoint Japan. The company plans to fully integrate the two brands around the end of December, which it said should cut costs and unify service levels.

Stablecoins have been a second driver of adoption. SBI VC Trade listed USDC in March 2025 in what it called Japan's first dollar-stablecoin listing, and in June 2026 added Ripple's dollar-backed RLUSD alongside JPYSC, a yen-pegged token it described as the country's first trust-based yen stablecoin, and began offering lending against stablecoins. CoinDesk reported the RLUSD launch in Japan earlier this year, which ran through SBI VC Trade under the country's approval regime.

The account milestone tracks a broader pickup in regulated crypto access in Japan, where a strict licensing regime has kept the market smaller than in the U.S. or South Korea but is steadily drawing retail and corporate users as stablecoins and treasury strategies take hold.