Japan’s SBI Group to Buy Crypto Exchange Bitbank for $289 Million

Japan’s SBI Group is acquiring cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank in a deal valued at 46.7 billion yen, or about $289 million. The transaction will push SBI’s crypto assets under custody above 1 trillion yen, positioning it to become Japan’s largest digital-asset operator.

Crypto-focused media outlet Odaily reported on June 25 that SBI Group announced the acquisition at 46.7 billion yen, equivalent to about $289 million.

An SBI Holdings subsidiary plans to buy shares from Bitbank’s founder and other individual shareholders in August. Bitbank then plans to repurchase stakes held by existing shareholders Mixi and Ceres by the end of October.

The deal will significantly expand SBI Group’s crypto business. Based on combined account data with SBI VC Trade as of April, the merged operation will have about 2.92 million accounts and roughly 1.1 trillion yen in assets under custody.

In dollar terms, SBI Group’s crypto assets under custody will exceed about $6.2 billion. Odaily said the acquisition would make SBI Group the largest cryptocurrency operator in Japan.