SBI Takes Top Spot in Japan's Crypto Market with Bitbank Acquisition

SBI Holdings, a Tokyo-listed group, has completed its acquisition of Bitbank, a Japanese crypto exchange, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. The deal, valued at around ¥46.7 billion ($289 million), was announced in June and involves the repurchase of treasury shares held by MIXI and Ceres, Bitbank's largest corporate backers.

The combination of SBI Holdings and Bitbank has created Japan's largest crypto exchange by custodied assets, with approximately ¥1.1 trillion ($7 billion) under custody across about 2.92 million accounts. Bitbank, which serves around 960,000 registered users, brings a Financial Services Agency license, a spot exchange listing dozens of crypto assets against the yen, and coin-lending and custody services into SBI's existing crypto operations.

The deal extends a multi-year consolidation streak in Japan's crypto market, with SBI VC Trade absorbing TaoTao in 2020 and taking on DMM Bitcoin accounts after a 2024 hack. Analysts at Architect Partners have named bitFlyer, the last large independent Japanese exchange, as an obvious next target.

The acquisition is part of SBI's push to build exchange infrastructure abroad, including its recent $76 million investment in EDX Markets. The group has also become the domestic distribution platform for Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin, deepening its presence in the payments space.