SBI Holdings Completes Full Acquisition of Tokyo Crypto Exchange Bitbank
SBI Holdings has completed its full acquisition of Tokyo crypto exchange Bitbank, which stated that services remain unaffected and customers can continue to use them as usual.
The transaction was approved by the board on June 25, 2026, at a price of 46.7 billion yen, approximately $289 million. The process involved wholly-owned subsidiary SBICAH first purchasing shares from CEO Noriyuki Hirosue and other individual shareholders, followed by a subscription to Bitbank's capital increase; Bitbank used the proceeds from the capital increase to repurchase and cancel shares held by MIXI and Ceres. The two companies originally held nearly half of the shares. The repurchase settlement was completed on October 1, making Bitbank an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary with 100% ownership.
As of the June announcement, based on a simple total as of April 30, SBI VC Trade and Bitbank together managed assets of approximately 11 trillion yen, about $6.8 billion, with around 2.92 million crypto accounts. SBI claims that the group ranks first in Japan's domestic exchanges by managed assets and is in the top tier by account numbers. The company plans to share customer bases, product development, security compliance, and management resources, and to expand related financial services such as stablecoins.
Post-settlement, there will be cross-appointments in management: SBI VC Trade President Tomohiko Kondo will serve as a director of Bitbank, while Hirosue plans to become an external director of SBI VC Trade. Bitbank was established in May 2014 and claims to have had no hacking incidents since its inception. The transaction was previously pending review by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and was expected to be completed around October.
SBI Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao's group defines this transaction as integrating Bitbank into its existing crypto business rather than establishing a new license. The announcement specifies that the aim is to enhance customer benefits, realize group synergies, and strengthen the competitiveness and profitability of crypto and digital asset businesses. The service brand will continue to use bitbank, with no adjustments seen in fees, listing, or withdrawal rules.
In market mechanics, this is a stock consolidation driven by the transfer of control, not retail trading. The sellers are Hirosue, individual shareholders, MIXI, and Ceres, while the buyer is SBI through SBICAH paying 46.7 billion yen. Managed assets and accounts are consolidated into the same group report, with pricing power shifting from independent exchanges to the group's crypto line. The beneficiary is SBI, which can leverage its 11 trillion yen in managed assets to negotiate stablecoin and institutional business; the pressure is on bitFlyer and Coincheck, which previously led in managed assets, as well as the original shareholders who relinquished their license access.
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SBI's strategy involves first establishing a Japanese crypto license with SBI VC Trade, then acquiring external exchanges to scale up. Capital business cooperation negotiations were initiated in May 2026, with a basic agreement and share transfer agreement signed on June 25, and 100% voting rights achieved through repurchase on October 1. Hirosue remains on the cross-board, indicating that the founder has transitioned from a controlling shareholder to an external director of the group, rather than exiting.
The 46.7 billion yen was not directly paid to MIXI and Ceres; instead, shares were first purchased from individuals, followed by Bitbank's capital increase to finance the repurchase of corporate shares. The motivation is to clear nearly half of the corporate equity as treasury stock and cancel it, avoiding minority shareholders remaining in the wholly-owned structure. The strategy is to consolidate customers, compliance, and stablecoin products onto the same managed asset balance sheet, using 11 trillion yen in managed assets to secure the top position domestically.
The industry position is under control. Compared to domestic leaders by managed assets, bitFlyer at approximately 960 billion yen and Coincheck at about 800 billion yen, this transaction uses acquisition to bypass the self-built curve. MIXI and Ceres exit, similar to industrial shareholders returning exchange equity to financial groups rather than continuing as strategic minorities.
Structurally, this represents capital concentration. The custody and accounts of Japanese crypto trading are consolidated under the same holding company, with fees and listing rights no longer priced separately by independent exchanges. The mechanism is: when licenses are scarce, acquiring a second license is faster than applying anew; repurchase and cancellation consolidate voting rights to 100%, allowing synergies to transform from announcement to deployable customer and compliance resources.
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- A second license is cheaper than a new application.
- Repurchase and cancellation effectively remove minority shareholders.
- Managed scale determines ranking, not fees.