Japan’s SBI Holdings has signed agreements to take full control of cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank in a deal worth 46.7 billion Japanese yen ($289 million), accelerating a deal first announced in May that would have created the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
SBI on Thursday he said that its wholly-owned subsidiary SBICAH will acquire shares from Bitbank CEO Noriyuki Hirosue and other shareholders prior to subscribing to the third-party share allocation. The exchange will then buy back the shares held by MIXI and Ceres, leaving SBI with 100% indirect ownership. SBI expects the deal to be completed around October, subject to regulatory approval.
The acquisition would expand SBI’s regulated cryptocurrency exchange reach and customer base, giving it another potential distribution channel for stablecoins, tokenized assets and onchain financial products.
Bitbank’s daily trading volume has hovered below $50 million for most of the past four months, CoinGecko data showed. Volume is dominated by the BTC/JPY pair (39.5%), followed by XRP/JPY and ETH/JPY (both 19.7%).
SBI said merging Bitbank with SBI VC Trade would give the group about 1.1 trillion yen in held assets and about 2.92 million crypto accounts, based on data as of delayed April. The company said the combined business would rank first among Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of assets held and one of the largest in terms of number of accounts.
Bitbank’s trading volume has hovered below $50 million for most of the last four months. Source: CoinGecko
SBI is building a broader digital asset ecosystem
The Bitbank deal is the latest in a series of moves by SBI to build infrastructure including trading in cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized financial markets.
In February, SBI and Startale Group unveiled Strium, a Layer 1 blockchain designed to support 24/7 trading and settlement of tokenized real-world stocks and assets.
Related: Circle, Nomura Looks at Japanese FX Corporation with Stable Coin Settlement: Report
SBI and Startale on Wednesday fired yen-pegged stablecoin, JPYSC. The token is issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank and distributed by SBI VC Trade. According to SBI, the stablecoin is initially narrow to transfers within SBI VC Trade accounts, while public circulation of the blockchain will be introduced once outstanding legal and tax conditions are resolved.
On the same day, Ripple and SBI Group fired USD-backed Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in Japan, also via SBI VC Trade. At launch, RLUSD became available to institutional and retail clients upon approval under Japan’s regulatory framework for overseas-issued stablecoins.
