Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings has entered into an agreement to acquire cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen ($288.6 million), a deal that would make SBI the dominant player in Japan’s crypto market by assets under management.
The transaction will be carried out through SBICAH LLC, a wholly owned SBI subsidiary. Upon closing, Bitbank would become an indirectly held, fully owned subsidiary of SBI Holdings with 100% of voting rights transferred to the group.
The deal still requires merger clearance from the Japan Fair Trade Commission—the country’s antitrust regulator—along with other standard closing conditions. In a statement Thursday, SBI said it expects the transaction to close in October this year.
Based on a combined count of SBI VC Trade and Bitbank figures as of April 30, 2026, the merged entity would hold approximately 1.1 trillion yen ($6.8 billion) in customer assets and serve roughly 2.92 million cryptocurrency accounts.
“This would place us in first place among domestic cryptocurrency exchange operators in terms of assets under management and among the top in terms of the number of accounts,” the company said.
SBI plans to integrate the customer bases, service infrastructure, security systems, and compliance frameworks of Bitbank and its existing crypto arm, SBI VC Trade, to expand trading offerings and develop new financial products tied to stablecoins and other digital assets.
Bitbank, founded in May 2014, ranks third among Japanese exchanges by daily trading volume, behind bitFlyer and Coincheck. The exchange has highlighted its clean security record: it says it has logged no hacking incidents since launch as a mark of its operational reliability.
The acquisition is the latest move in a broader consolidation push by SBI across Japan’s crypto sector. In April 2026, SBI VC Trade absorbed Bitpoint Japan, allowing SBI to combine more crypto exchange resources under one group and reduce overlap across its digital asset businesses. The conglomerate also acquired DMM Bitcoin customer accounts in 2025 and has disclosed plans to acquire a majority stake in Singapore-based exchange Coinhako.
Regulatory Tailwinds Drive the Deal
The timing is tied to shifting regulatory conditions. In April, Japan’s cabinet approved a bill to amend the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and the Payment Services Act, bringing crypto assets under the same regulatory framework as traditional securities such as stocks. The changes are expected to raise compliance costs and capital requirements, creating barriers that smaller standalone exchanges may struggle to clear. Large, well-capitalized groups like SBI stand to benefit from that dynamic.
SBI Holdings and Nomura are among the financial groups expected to develop crypto-linked exchange-traded fund products once a legal framework— targeted for 2028—is in place.
Bitbank confirmed there will be no effect on its existing services, and customers can continue using the platform as usual while the acquisition process moves forward.