SBI, Japan's Financial Giant, Quietly Expands Its Crypto Footprint

Author: Chloe, ChainCatcher

Japanese financial group SBI Holdings has recently made a series of aggressive moves in the digital asset space: within three weeks, it acquired Japanese licensed exchange Bitbank for JPY 46.7 billion (approximately USD 289 million), led the USD 76 million Series C round for institutional crypto platform EDX Markets, exclusively invested USD 125 million in DeFi risk analytics firm Gauntlet, and on July 13 announced a strategic partnership with the Solana Foundation to jointly build an on-chain financial market in Japan.

Historically, SBI’s approach to the crypto sector has primarily involved joint ventures, minority stakes, and full acquisitions, rarely acting as a lead investor in venture rounds. If one carefully examines the content, timing, and public statements surrounding this recent wave of deals and collaborations—as well as evaluations from multiple institutional analysts—how should the market interpret this acceleration by the traditional financial giant?

On July 7, institutional-focused crypto trading platform EDX Markets announced it had closed a $76 million Series C funding round led by SBI. Launched in 2023, EDX counts Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab, Virtu, Sequoia, and Paradigm among its shareholders. EDX stated the new capital will be used to expand its trading, clearing, and settlement capabilities and accelerate its expansion into the Asia-Pacific market.

On July 9, according to Fortune, DeFi asset management and risk analytics firm Gauntlet completed a $125 million financing round, which closed in June of this year and was exclusively invested by SBI through its U.S. subsidiary, with no other participants in the round. This marks Gauntlet’s largest funding round since its founding in 2018—more than five times the size of its $24 million Series B round in 2022, which was led by Ribbit Capital at a $1 billion valuation.

Although the three deals differ in structure, they share a common feature: in each case, SBI acted as the sole or primary investor rather than a passive co-investor.

SBI Group was founded in 1999 as an investment arm of SoftBank and became fully independent in 2006. Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the group now has a market capitalization exceeding $10 billion and is one of the earliest and most active traditional financial giants globally to engage deeply in the crypto industry. In 2016, the company took a stake in Ripple and formed the joint venture SBI Ripple Asia. Since then, it has acquired stakes in companies such as Morpho and Circle.

When mapped against SBI’s business footprint, these three transactions correspond respectively to the retail, institutional, and on-chain layers.

Bitbank: Japanese retail market

In its announcement, SBI stated that the transaction will strengthen the group's presence, competitiveness, and profitability in the crypto and digital assets space, and it plans to develop new financial products linked to digital assets such as stablecoins.

EDX Markets: U.S. Institutional Infrastructure

EDX Markets does not serve retail investors; instead, it provides a trading venue exclusively for institutions, offering services including central clearing and settlement, as well as FlowConnect—a service launched this year that enables financial institutions to embed crypto trading capabilities.

EDX has also applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter, EDX Trust. If approved, it would be able to directly offer regulated custody, clearing, and settlement services to institutional clients. EDX currently operates a U.S. spot exchange and a Singapore-based perpetual futures platform serving non-U.S. institutions, with its next geographic expansion focus squarely on Asia-Pacific.

Gauntlet: On-Chain Asset Management and Risk Control

Founded in 2018 by former Wall Street quantitative researcher Tarun Chitra, Gauntlet initially provided stress testing for protocols like Aave and Compound before transitioning into an on-chain vault curation business. Vault curation operates similarly to mutual funds: investors deposit assets into vaults to earn returns, while Gauntlet uses quantitative models to assess the risk of yield strategies.

According to Fortune, Gauntlet currently manages approximately $1.5 billion in vault assets, with clients including Apollo, Coinbase, and Circle. Its automated platform monitors over $42 billion in user assets. With the new funding, Gauntlet plans to expand its stablecoin coverage beyond the U.S. dollar and euro to include the Japanese yen and Mexican peso.

Beyond these three transactions, SBI is also actively collaborating with Solana to enhance its on-chain footprint.

In the fiercely contested stablecoin arena, SBI Group is accelerating its market capture. On June 24—the same day it announced the acquisition of Bitbank—SBI partnered with Startale Group to launch Japan’s first yen-denominated stablecoin structured under a trust framework, 'JPYSC,' issued by its subsidiary SBI Shinsei Trust Bank and exclusively distributed by SBI VC Trade. Simultaneously, RLUSD, the U.S. dollar stablecoin from Ripple—a long-time SBI partner—also made its debut on the SBI VC Trade platform the same day, following approval by Japan’s Financial Services Agency.

This means that SBI VC Trade now firmly controls the critical gateway between fiat and crypto assets for Japan’s three major compliant stablecoins—JPYSC, USDC, and RLUSD. To further expand the on-chain financial ecosystem, SBI also announced it will launch JPYSC lending services starting July 16, offering an annualized interest rate of 3%.

The newly formed SBI Solana Global will fully embrace the Solana blockchain ecosystem. In addition to accelerating the issuance of stablecoins like JPYSC, its core focus will be tokenizing and facilitating the circulation of RWA assets such as corporate bonds, commercial paper, funds, and real estate. Furthermore, the team will build a cross-border payment network and institutional-grade on-chain financial services, laying the groundwork for next-generation payment infrastructure tailored for the upcoming AI Agent era.

This marriage between traditional finance and a top-tier public blockchain was foreshadowed well in advance. As early as May 2025, SBI’s R3 blockchain consortium had already allied with the Solana Foundation, appointing Solana as the security validation layer for institutional permissioned chains. Today, R3’s Corda platform manages over USD 10 billion in compliant RWA. SBI explicitly stated that Solana’s high scalability, extremely low costs, and global ecosystem constitute indispensable core infrastructure for on-chain finance. SBI’s core mission is to serve as a bridge—packaging Japan’s regulated assets and deep-rooted institutional expertise onto Solana’s global liquidity engine.

These moves have sparked considerable discussion within the industry. Several institutional analysts and venture capitalists shared their perspectives with The Block from different angles.

Structural Perspective: Buying the 'Pipelines' of the Financial System

Joseph Goh, Asia-Pacific Head at investment banking advisory firm Areta, believes SBI is undertaking something no other traditional Asian financial group has attempted: building an end-to-end, cross-border digital asset value chain spanning issuance, settlement, market infrastructure, asset management, and retail distribution. He characterizes this series of transactions not as acquiring crypto risk exposure, but rather as purchasing the 'pipelines' of the next-generation financial system.

Goh specifically highlighted two key threads: In asset management, integrating Gauntlet’s institutional-grade on-chain capabilities with SBI’s distribution channels—via Bitbank and Singapore-based Coinhako—could create Asia’s first scaled on-chain asset management business. On the settlement front, he argues that whoever controls the 'yen endpoint' of on-chain settlement could secure a strategically pivotal position in Asia’s financial future—and JPYSC and USDC’s circulation in Japan, coupled with collaboration with Solana, is precisely where SBI is intensifying its efforts.

Another school of thought approaches the issue from the perspective of market cycles. Quynh Ho, Head of Venture Investments at GSR, and Mike Bucella, Co-Founder of Neoclassic Capital, both argue that bear markets often present the best opportunities for long-term positioning, as valuations are lower and competition for deals is less intense. Bucella stated that for long-term investors, entering at the bottom of a cycle can yield substantial returns once the market turns.

In fact, this wave of investments comes against the backdrop of digital assets posting declines for three consecutive quarters. Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Chairman of Animoca Brands, added a regulatory perspective, suggesting that SBI is proactively securing its position ahead of Japan’s upcoming regulatory shift rather than waiting for clarity before acting. He also revealed that several major crypto transactions are currently under evaluation by traditional financial institutions.

Portfolio Companies: Valuing Distribution and Market Access Beyond Capital

The two invested companies are focused on 'value beyond capital.' When asked what SBI brings besides funding, Tarun Chitra, CEO of Gauntlet, emphasized distribution and market access, noting that SBI’s network in Japan and Asia enables Gauntlet to reach financial institutions and tokenization initiatives it previously couldn’t access.

Tony Acuña-Rohter, CEO of EDX, said the partnership provides access to SBI’s broader digital asset ecosystem—including market makers, stablecoin initiatives, tokenization efforts, and brokerage operations—creating opportunities to jointly advance institutional market infrastructure.

However, opinions aren't universally optimistic. Joseph Goh cautioned that 'execution capability and regulatory timing' will ultimately determine success or failure. Nevertheless, he noted that because Bitbank and Coinhako are both regulated, licensed exchanges—and given SBI’s strategic use of minority equity stakes—the potential risks of cross-border integration and operations have been effectively mitigated.

SBI’s Own Explanation

Regarding why it is making concentrated moves at this time, SBI told The Block that the group is driving a comprehensive on-chain transformation, aiming to offer an integrated suite of services spanning exchanges, asset tokenization, and marketplace platforms. Recent acquisitions, investments, and partnerships are all part of this overarching strategy. Kefei Lin, head of the group, told Fortune that with U.S. regulation becoming clearer, SBI plans to increase its investments and operations in the United States this year.

This confidence stems largely from anticipated regulatory tailwinds in Japan. Last month, Japan’s House of Representatives passed a key bill that would bring crypto assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, regulating them on par with equities—a move that paves the way for crypto ETFs. The government also plans to slash the top capital gains tax rate on crypto from 55% to 20% by 2028, aligning it with rates for stocks and bonds. SBI Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao has repeatedly stressed: 'The migration of traditional finance onto the blockchain is irreversible. Building trusted infrastructure that gives investors peace of mind is our top priority.'

Notably, SBI unusually opted to 'lead the investment round' in this deal rather than pursue a full acquisition or joint venture. Strategically, this is a highly astute move: the backing shareholders of portfolio companies EDX and Gauntlet include Wall Street titans such as Citadel, Fidelity, and Apollo. Only by preserving their identity as 'neutral third parties' can these firms continue attracting collaboration from such giants. By leading the round, SBI has secured the strategic high ground as the largest single shareholder—without compromising that neutrality. Whether this on-chain financial empire, assembled by traditional finance heavyweights, will function as intended remains to be seen, and global markets are watching closely.

然而，评价并非一边倒看好。Joseph Goh 提醒，「执行力与监管节奏」将是最终的成败关键。不过他也认为，由于 Bitbank 与 Coinhako 均为受监管的持牌交易所，加上 SBI 灵活运用少数股权投资，已有效降低了跨界整合与运营的潜在风险。

SBI 自己的说法

关于为何在此时集中出手，SBI 接受 The Block 采访时表示，集团正在推动整体的链上转型，目标是在提供从交易所、资产代币化到市场平台的一整套功能，近期的收购、投资与合作都是集团策略的一部分。集团负责人 Kefei Lin 则向 Fortune 表示，随着美国监管明朗化，SBI 今年将增加在美投资与运营。

这番底气，很大程度来自日本本土即将迎来的监管红利。日本众议院上月已通过关键法案，拟将加密资产纳入《金融商品交易法》并与股票同等监管，为加密 ETF 铺路，更计划于 2028 年将最高资本利得税从 55% 大幅降至与股债一致的 20%。SBI 会长北尾吉孝对此反复强调：「传统金融向链上转移已不可逆，打造让投资人安心的可信赖基础设施，是集团的首要任务。」

值得注意的是，SBI 在本轮交易中反常地选择「领投」而非「全资收购」或「合资参股」。从商业策略来看，这是一手极具智慧的棋局：被投方 EDX 与 Gauntlet 的背后股东皆是 Citadel、富达、Apollo 等华尔街顶级巨头，唯有维持其「中立第三方」的底色，才能持续吸引巨头共舞。SBI 通过领投，在不破坏中立性的前提下夺得「最大单一股东」的战略制高点。这场传统金融巨头组装的链上金融帝国能否如愿运转，全球市场正拭目以待。

78K Views