SBI Solidifies Position as Japan's Largest Crypto Exchange with Bitbank Acquisition

SBI Holdings has solidified its position as the leading force in Japan's regulated cryptocurrency exchange market with the completion of the acquisition of Bitbank on October 1. The deal, valued at approximately $295.4 million, creates a combined platform that ranks first among domestic operators by custodied assets.

The acquisition adds Bitbank's roughly ¥570 billion ($3.6 billion) in custodied assets and nearly a million accounts to SBI's existing crypto operations. The combined platform now holds about ¥1.1 trillion ($7.0 billion) in assets under custody across some 2.92 million accounts.

The transaction was structured in multiple stages, with SBI's wholly owned unit, SBICAH, serving as the acquisition vehicle. The deal brings significant changes to Bitbank's board composition, with Tomohiko Kondo, president and representative director of SBI VC Trade, joining Bitbank as a director.

Bitbank's new board consists of Hirosue, Naomichi Noda, Masaaki Kato, Masahiro Terada, Kondo, and three outside directors serving on its audit and supervisory committee. Hirosue will remain Bitbank's representative director, president, and CEO, while also taking an outside director position at SBI VC Trade.

The acquisition is part of SBI's broader digital asset push, which has moved beyond exchange acquisitions into stablecoins, institutional trading, and tokenized assets. The group has been developing yen-based stablecoin products and has pursued institutional crypto infrastructure outside Japan.