Author: Chloe, ChainCatcher
Japanese financial group SBI Holdings has recently made intensive moves in the digital asset space: purchasing the Japanese licensed exchange Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen (approximately 289 million USD), leading a 76 million USD Series C round for the institutional-focused crypto platform EDX Markets, exclusively investing 125 million USD in the DeFi risk analysis firm Gauntlet, and announcing a strategic partnership with the Solana Foundation on July 13 to jointly build a local on-chain financial market in Japan.
SBI has historically engaged in the crypto space through joint ventures, equity stakes, and complete acquisitions, rarely taking the lead in venture capital rounds. If we carefully analyze the content, timing, and statements of all parties involved in this series of transactions and partnerships, as well as the evaluations from multiple institutional analysts regarding their strategy, how should the market interpret this traditional financial giant's accelerated moves?
Intensive Moves in Three Weeks
On June 24, SBI announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary SBICAH would acquire all shares of Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen, with the transaction proceeding in two phases and expected to close around October after review and approval by the Japan Fair Trade Commission. SBI stated that, based on data from the end of April, combined assets under the control of SBI VC Trade (SBI’s proprietary exchange) and Bitbank amount to approximately 11 trillion yen (around 6.8 billion USD), with around 2.92 million crypto accounts, making the total assets under custody surpass those of bitFlyer and Coincheck, ranking first in Japan.
On July 7, the institutional-focused crypto trading platform EDX Markets announced the completion of a 76 million USD Series C funding round led by SBI. EDX, which launched in 2023, counts shareholders such as Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab, Virtu, Sequoia, and Paradigm. EDX stated that this funding will be used to expand trading, clearing, and settlement capabilities and drive growth in the Asia-Pacific market.
On July 9, according to Fortune, the DeFi asset management and risk analysis company Gauntlet completed a 125 million USD financing, which closed in June this year, with SBI exclusively investing through its U.S. subsidiary, with no other participants in the round. This is Gauntlet’s largest financing since its founding in 2018, exceeding the 24 million USD raised in a Series B round led by Ribbit Capital at a valuation of 1 billion USD by more than five times.
The three transactions differ in structure, but the commonality is that SBI is the sole or primary investor in each, rather than a follower.
SBI's Crypto Layout is Not a New Thing
SBI Group was founded in 1999 as an investment arm of SoftBank and became fully independent in 2006. The group is currently listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of over 10 billion USD, making it one of the earliest and most active traditional financial giants involved in the crypto industry. The company invested in Ripple in 2016 and established a joint venture, SBI Ripple Asia, and has since gradually acquired stakes in firms like Morpho and Circle.
However, in most historical cases, SBI's role has been that of a strategic partner, joint venture partner, or acquirer, rather than a lead investor in venture rounds. For example, in the case of market maker B2C2, SBI first took a stake of 30 million USD in July 2020 and then acquired 90% of the equity to make it a subsidiary in December of that year. This model only changed this year: when Startale Group completed a 63 million USD Series A funding round in March, SBI led with a 50 million USD investment, while Startale became a technical partner for the launch of the yen stablecoin JPYSC with SBI three months later. The exclusive investments in EDX and Gauntlet continue this model of “leading implies binding.”
What Each Transaction Complements
By comparing the three transactions against SBI's business map, it becomes apparent that they correspond to three different levels: retail, institutional, and on-chain.
Bitbank: The Japanese Retail Market
Bitbank was established in 2014 and claims to have had no hacking incidents since its founding. SBI VC Trade absorbed and merged the Japanese exchange Bitpoint in April this year, and with this acquisition of Bitbank, SBI is consolidating two licensed competitors within one year. In the context of the Japanese Financial Services Agency promoting the transition of crypto assets from the existing legal framework to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, with compliance thresholds continually rising, licenses and existing customer assets are both scarce resources.
SBI stated in the announcement that this transaction will strengthen the group’s presence, competitiveness, and profitability in the crypto and digital asset fields, and plans to develop new financial products linked to stablecoins and other digital assets.
EDX Markets: U.S. Institutional Infrastructure
EDX Markets does not target retail investors but rather provides a trading venue exclusively for institutions, covering central clearing, delivery, and settlement, as well as the FlowConnect service launched this year, allowing financial institutions to embed crypto trading capabilities.
EDX is also applying for a national trust bank license (EDX Trust) from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC); if approved, it would be able to provide regulated custodial, clearing, and settlement services for institutional clients directly. Currently, EDX’s business includes a U.S. spot trading platform and a perpetual contract platform targeting non-U.S. institutions in Singapore, with the next geographical expansion focusing on the Asia-Pacific region.
Gauntlet: On-chain Asset Management and Risk Control
Gauntlet was founded in 2018 by former Wall Street quantitative researcher Tarun Chitra, initially providing stress testing for protocols like Aave and Compound, later transitioning into an on-chain vault curation business. The operation of vault curation is similar to mutual funds: investors deposit assets into a vault in exchange for returns, and Gauntlet assesses the risk of earning strategies using quantitative models.
According to Fortune, Gauntlet currently manages approximately 1.5 billion USD in vault assets, with clients including Apollo, Coinbase, and Circle, and the automated platform monitors user assets exceeding 42 billion USD. After securing the funding, Gauntlet plans to expand stablecoin coverage from USD and EUR to JPY and MXN.
Stablecoins and Settlement Layer: From JPYSC to Solana Partnership
Beyond the three transactions, SBI is also actively collaborating with Solana to enhance its on-chain layout.
In the highly competitive field of stablecoins, SBI Group is accelerating its land grab. On June 24, the same day SBI announced the acquisition of Bitbank, it launched Japan's first yen stablecoin “JPYSC” using a trust structure in partnership with Startale Group, issued by its subsidiary SBI Shinsei Trust Bank, and exclusively distributed by SBI VC Trade. Soon after, the USD stablecoin RLUSD, associated with Ripple, also made its debut on the SBI VC Trade platform after reviewing by the Japan Financial Services Agency.
This means that currently, the three major compliant stablecoins in Japan (JPYSC, USDC, RLUSD) have their key gateways for fiat and crypto assets firmly controlled by SBI VC Trade. To further expand the on-chain financial ecosystem, SBI announced that starting from July 16, it will launch JPYSC lending services, offering an annual interest rate of 3%.
If the circulation of stablecoins is a land grab, then SBI’s announcement of a strategic partnership with Solana on July 13 extends the battlefield into the deep water of the foundational settlement and RWA. The announcement stated that the Swiss Solana Foundation will invest in "SBI R3 Japan," which will be renamed "SBI Solana Global." This means that Solana will team up with SBI and Japanese financial giant Sumitomo Mitsui Trust (SMFG) to jointly create a local on-chain financial market in Japan.
The newly formed SBI Solana Global will fully embrace the Solana public blockchain ecosystem. Its key businesses will not only accelerate the issuance of stablecoins like JPYSC but also focus on tokenizing and circulating RWA assets such as corporate bonds, commercial papers, funds, and real estate. Additionally, the team will build a cross-border payment network, institutional-grade on-chain financial services, and lay the groundwork for next-generation payment infrastructure in the future AI Agent era.
This marriage of traditional finance and top public chains has been prepped for a long time. SBI’s R3 blockchain alliance allied with the Solana Foundation in May 2025, allowing Solana to serve as the security verification layer for institutional permissioned chains. Now, R3’s Corda platform manages over 10 billion USD in compliant RWA. SBI states that Solana’s high scalability, extremely low cost, and global ecosystem are indispensable core infrastructures for on-chain finance. SBI’s core mission is to act as a bridge, packaging Japan’s regulated assets and traditional institutional strengths onto Solana's global liquidity wheel.
How Do the Market and Analysts View This?
This series of moves has sparked considerable discussion within the industry. Multiple institutional analysts and venture capitalists shared their evaluations in interviews with The Block from different perspectives.
Structural View: Buying the “Pipelines” of the Financial System
Joseph Goh, head of Areta's Asia Pacific region, believes that SBI is doing what other traditional financial groups in Asia have not attempted: spanning issuance, clearing, market infrastructure, asset management, and retail distribution to create an end-to-end, cross-border digital asset industry chain. He characterizes this series of transactions as SBI not buying crypto risk exposure, but rather “pipelines” for the next-generation financial system.
Goh specifically highlighted two main themes: on asset management, connecting Gauntlet’s institutional-level on-chain capabilities with SBI’s distribution through Bitbank and Singapore’s Coinhako has the chance to become Asia's first scaled on-chain asset management business; on settlement, he believes that whoever controls the on-chain settlement of the “yen side” could hold a strategic position for the future of finance in Asia, and the cooperation of JPYSC, USDC in Japan with Solana is exactly where SBI is focusing its efforts.
Timing View: Long-term Logic for Entering a Bear Market
Another group of commentators approached from the market cycle angle. Quynh Ho, GSR's investment director, and Mike Bucella, co-founder of Neoclassic Capital, both believe that bear markets are often the best timing for long-term positioning, as valuations are lower and competitive deal-making is less intense; Bucella stated that long-term investments should enter at the cycle's low points, reaping rich returns once the market reverses.
In fact, this round of moves comes against the backdrop of a continuous third-quarter decline in digital assets. Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, supplemented the view from a regulatory perspective, stating that SBI is staking its position in anticipation of Japan's upcoming regulatory changes rather than waiting for clarifications on regulations; he also revealed that some large crypto exchanges are under evaluation by traditional financial institutions.
Investee's Perspective: Valuing Distribution and Access Beyond Funding
The two investees focus on the “value beyond money.” When asked what SBI brings beyond funding, Gauntlet CEO Tarun Chitra noted that it mainly involves distribution and market access, emphasizing that SBI’s network in Japan and Asia can help Gauntlet reach financial institutions and tokenization projects that it previously could not access.
EDX CEO Tony Acuña-Rohter mentioned that they can tap into SBI’s broader digital asset ecosystem, including market makers, stablecoin projects, tokenization, and brokerage operations, exploring opportunities to jointly advance institutional market infrastructure.
However, the evaluations are not uniformly positive. Joseph Goh cautioned that “execution capability and regulatory pace” will be key to ultimate success or failure. Still, he believes that since both Bitbank and Coinhako are regulated licensed exchanges, along with SBI’s flexible minority stake investments, it effectively reduces the potential risks of cross-border integration and operations.
SBI’s Own Statements
When asked why it concentrated its efforts at this time, SBI stated in an interview with The Block that the group is promoting an overall on-chain transformation, aiming to provide a full suite of functions from exchanges to asset tokenization and market platforms, with the recent acquisitions, investments, and partnerships being part of the group’s strategy. Group leader Kefei Lin mentioned to Fortune that with regulatory clarity emerging in the United States, SBI will increase its investments and operations in the U.S. this year.
This confidence largely stems from the upcoming regulatory dividends in Japan. The Japanese House of Representatives passed a key bill last month proposing to include crypto assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, placing them on par with stocks in terms of regulation, paving the way for crypto ETFs, and planning to significantly cut the maximum capital gains tax from 55% to align with stocks and bonds at 20% by 2028. SBI Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao has repeatedly emphasized: “The transfer of traditional finance to on-chain is irreversible, and creating a reliable infrastructure for investors is the group's top priority.”
Notably, SBI chose to “lead the investment” in this round of transactions rather than opting for “full acquisitions” or “joint ventures.” From a business strategy perspective, this is a highly savvy chess move: EDX and Gauntlet’s backers include top Wall Street giants such as Citadel, Fidelity, and Apollo; maintaining its “neutral third party” status is key to continually attracting these giants to collaborate. By leading the investment, SBI secures the strategic high ground of being the “largest single shareholder” while maintaining neutrality. Whether this on-chain financial empire constructed by traditional financial giants can function as intended remains to be seen by the global market.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
