Japanese financial group SBI Holdings announced plans to acquire cryptocurrency exchange bitbank. The deal will strengthen the company’s digital asset ecosystem, expand its portfolio of services, and reinforce its position in Japan’s crypto market.
SBI Holdings, Japan’s largest financial conglomerate, announced that it signed a basic agreement for the acquisition of shares in cryptocurrency exchange operator bitbank.
The transaction, valued at JPY 46.7 billion (approximately $319 million), will be executed through SBI’s wholly owned subsidiary SBICAH. The deal is expected to close in October, pending antitrust clearance and the fulfillment of other customary closing conditions.
The acquisition will be completed in several stages. SBICAH will first acquire 53,704 shares from bitbank founder and CEO Noriyuki Hirose and other private shareholders. It will then participate in a capital increase by purchasing an additional 48,952 shares. Bitbank will use the proceeds to repurchase shares held by MIXI and Ceres. Once all stages are completed, SBI Holdings will become the exchange’s sole owner.
Founded in 2014, bitbank operates the cryptocurrency exchange of the same name. The company generated JPY 5.8 billion (approximately $39.7 million) in revenue in fiscal 2025.
SBI said integrating bitbank will combine the companies’ customer bases, product development capabilities, and security and compliance infrastructure. According to bitbank, the exchange hasn’t experienced a successful hacking incident since its launch.
The acquisition will support SBI’s broader digital asset strategy, including the rollout of new financial services based on stablecoins and on-chain finance. The company estimates that, after the transaction closes, combined client assets held by SBI VC Trade and bitbank will total about JPY 1.1 trillion (approximately $7.5 billion), while the total number of crypto accounts will reach roughly 2.92 million. The deal will enable SBI to build Japan’s largest crypto platform by client assets and one of the country’s largest by user accounts. The company also said the acquisition isn’t expected to have a material impact on its consolidated financial results for fiscal 2026.
The transaction continues SBI Group’s broader digital asset strategy. In 2025, the company announced partnerships with Ripple, Circle, Startale Group, and Chainlink. In March, it launched a retail lending service for the USDC stablecoin on SBI VC Trade. In June, it also began issuing and distributing JPYSC, Japan’s first trust-based yen-denominated stablecoin. In addition, the financial conglomerate is advancing tokenized deposit initiatives and developing a cryptocurrency investment fund.
