TL;DR:
- SBI Holdings agreed to acquire Japanese exchange Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen ($288.6 million) to make it a subsidiary.
- The deal will be executed through SBICAH LLC and is subject to approval by the Japan Fair Trade Commission; closing is expected in October.
- The merger would bring the group’s crypto assets to 1.1 trillion yen and cryptocurrency accounts to 2.92 million.
SBI Holdings announced the signing of agreements to acquire Japanese exchange Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen, equivalent to $288.6 million. The transaction will be carried out through SBICAH LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the financial conglomerate, and will turn Bitbank into an indirectly controlled subsidiary with a 100% voting rights stake.
The deal remains subject to approval by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and to the fulfillment of other closing conditions. The transaction is expected to be completed in October 2026. SBI Holdings had signaled in May that it was in talks to finalize this acquisition.
SBI Holdings Positions Itself at the Top of the Japanese Market
According to the official statement, SBI Holdings plans to combine Bitbank’s client base, service development capabilities, and security and compliance systems with those of its existing crypto operations. The goal is to expand trading services and develop new financial products linked to stablecoins and other digital assets.
The consolidation of SBI VC Trade and Bitbank, using both entities’ figures as of the end of April 2026 as a reference, would bring the group’s crypto assets to approximately 1.1 trillion yen, equivalent to $6.8 billion. The number of cryptocurrency accounts would reach 2.92 million. “This would place us first among domestic cryptocurrency exchange operators in terms of assets under management and among the top in number of accounts,” the company stated.
Bitbank was founded in May 2014 and operates one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan. The company highlights that it has recorded no hacking incidents since its founding, a crucial fact in a market where operational security has historically been a critical differentiating factor.
