SBI Holdings has entered into agreements to bring crypto exchange Bitbank into the SBI Group as a wholly-owned subsidiary, with a total acquisition cost of 46.7 billion yen, equivalent to approximately $289 million, according to SBI’s announcement on June 25. The transaction will be executed through SBI Crypto Asset Holdings GK (SBICAH), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI Holdings, and is expected to be completed around October 2026. Bitbank stated that its current services will not be affected, and customers can continue to use the platform as usual.
Deal Details and Verification
SBI stated that its board of directors approved the transaction at a meeting on June 25, 2026, and concurrently signed a basic agreement with Bitbank, CEO Noriyuki Hirosue, MIXI, and Ceres regarding the series of transactions to make Bitbank a wholly-owned subsidiary through SBICAH. SBICAH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI Holdings. On the same day, SBI also signed a share transfer agreement with Hirosue and several other individual shareholders to acquire Bitbank shares.
The deal is structured in multiple steps. SBICAH will first acquire common shares of Bitbank for cash. Afterward, SBICAH will participate in a new share issuance executed by Bitbank through a third-party allotment. Bitbank plans to use the proceeds from this capital increase to repurchase all shares held by MIXI and Ceres as treasury stock.
The total acquisition cost announced by SBI is 46.7 billion yen, including share transfer costs and the payment for the capital increase. SBICAH expects to acquire 53,704 shares through the share transfer and 48,952 shares through the capital increase. After these two steps, SBI will indirectly hold 102,656 shares of Bitbank, representing 68.76% of the voting rights. When the entire transaction is completed, including Bitbank’s repurchase of shares from MIXI and Ceres, SBI’s indirect voting right ratio is expected to reach 100%.
Detail of costs and ownership ratios in the Bitbank transaction. Source: SBI Holdings
According to the schedule, the share transfer is expected to take place around August 2026. The capital increase, Bitbank’s treasury stock repurchase, and the transaction closing date are all planned for around October 2026. The completion of the deal remains subject to the business combination review by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and other conditions. SBI stated that the impact on its consolidated results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2027, is expected to be minor.
Why the Deal Matters
The deal brings a licensed domestic crypto exchange into the ecosystem of one of Japan’s major financial groups. For SBI, Bitbank helps directly expand its presence in digital asset trading infrastructure, where licensing, yen liquidity, custody systems, and compliance capabilities hold strategic value.
SBI said that after combining the figures of SBI VC Trade and Bitbank as of April 30, 2026, the group expects to have approximately 1.1 trillion yen in crypto assets under custody and 2.92 million crypto accounts. According to SBI, this scale will place the group in the number one position in Japan for assets under custody among domestic crypto exchange service providers, while also positioning it among the leaders in the number of accounts.
The agreement also paves the way for SBI to expand beyond spot trading into financial services utilizing stablecoins and other digital assets. This makes Bitbank a part of SBI’s broader digital asset infrastructure strategy, rather than just an acquisition to add trading volume.
Bitbank and SBI’s Crypto Footprint
Through this transaction, SBI will add a trading platform with established yen liquidity and a strong position in Japan. According to CoinGecko on June 27, the exchange has a Trust Score of 8/10, supports 44 coins and 44 trading pairs, with a 24-hour trading volume of approximately 490.8 BTC. The BTC/JPY, XRP/JPY, ETH/JPY, and SOL/JPY pairs are among the primary trading groups, indicating that the platform’s focus remains on domestic users rather than global stablecoin liquidity.
Bitbank stated that it has never experienced any loss of customer assets due to hacking since its inception, a notable point in the Japanese market, where past security incidents led regulators to tighten standards for customer asset protection.
SBI already has a presence in crypto through SBI VC Trade, a unit registered as a crypto-asset exchange service provider with the FSA. Bringing Bitbank into the SBI Group therefore helps SBI scale its exchange business and strengthen an existing footprint.
Japan’s Regulatory Backdrop
Japan is a crypto market with a clear regulatory framework but high compliance requirements. Crypto exchange service providers must register with the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) and meet requirements regarding governance, customer asset protection, system security, and anti-money laundering. According to the FSA list updated as of April 30, 2026, Japan has 27 registered crypto-asset exchange service providers.
In its separate announcement, Bitbank also mentioned that the industry is in a transitional phase as Japanese authorities push to amend the legal framework for crypto from the Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. If this direction continues to progress, crypto businesses in Japan may have to operate closer to traditional financial market standards.
In this context, crypto M&A deals in Japan do not solely depend on the agreement between the buyer and the seller. For SBI-Bitbank, the completion of the transaction also depends on the business combination review by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and other conditions precedent.
What Comes Next
The transaction is expected to close around October 2026, following the share transfer step planned for around August 2026.
Bitbank stated that its current services will continue to operate as normal. After the deal closes, a key point to watch is whether SBI will maintain Bitbank as an independent brand or integrate it more deeply with SBI VC Trade.
