Key Highlights
- SBI Holdings completes Bitbank acquisition: Bitbank is now a wholly owned subsidiary of SBI Holdings.
- Bitbank service remains unchanged: Customers can continue using the exchange as before despite the ownership change.
- SBI expands its crypto business: The acquisition adds to SBI’s wider digital asset expansion, including Coinhako and its stablecoin business.
SBI Holdings has completed its acquisition of Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank, making the company a wholly owned subsidiary on October 1, 2026. The deal was completed after Bitbank bought back its remaining shares from MIXI and Ceres, bringing several months of talks and agreements between the companies to a close.
According to the official release, the ownership change also comes with a new management structure. Tomohiko Kondo, president and CEO of SBI VC Trade, will join Bitbank as a director. At the same time, Bitbank President and CEO Noriyuki Hirosue will become an outside director of SBI VC Trade. The appointments create closer management links between the two companies as they operate under the same group.
Bitbank customers can keep using the exchange
For Bitbank customers, the change in ownership does not mean a change to the exchange itself.
Bitbank said the completion of the deal will not affect its existing service, meaning customers can continue using the “bitbank” platform as before.
The company said becoming part of the SBI Group will give it access to the group’s financial services, customer base, and other business resources. Bitbank plans to use those resources as it expands its digital asset business, including its cryptocurrency exchange services.
From early talks to a completed deal
The deal followed several months of discussions. SBI Holdings first showed interest in Bitbank in May 2026, when it sent the exchange a letter of intent and started talks about a possible partnership and investment.
At that stage, SBI was considering bringing Bitbank into its group, but the plan remained subject to further checks and regulatory approval. The discussions moved forward in June. On June 25, SBI Holdings announced that it had signed both a Basic Agreement and a Share Transfer Agreement to acquire full control of Bitbank.
The planned deal involved Bitbank CEO Noriyuki Hirosue, MIXI and Ceres, with SBI carrying out the purchase through its wholly owned company, SBICAH GK.
The final stage involved several steps. SBICAH first acquired Bitbank shares from Hirosue and other individual shareholders.
Bitbank then issued new shares to SBICAH and used the money raised to buy back the shares still held by MIXI and Ceres. Once those steps were completed, SBI Holdings reached full indirect voting control of Bitbank.
SBI builds a wider digital asset business
The acquisition is part of SBI’s wider push into digital assets. In July 2026, the Japanese financial group completed the purchase of a majority stake in Singapore-based crypto platform Coinhako, adding another regulated crypto business to its operations in Asia.
SBI has also expanded into stablecoins. In June, the group launched JPYSC, a yen-based stablecoin developed with Startale. SBI VC Trade has also been involved in distributing Ripple’s RLUSD in Japan.
When SBI announced the Bitbank deal in June, it said a simple combination of figures from April 30 showed the two businesses would have about ¥1.1 trillion in assets under custody and around 2.92 million crypto asset accounts. Those figures were estimates based on the businesses’ figures at the time.
With the acquisition complete, Bitbank has moved from being a company SBI was seeking to acquire into a fully owned part of the group. Its exchange service remains available to customers, while its ownership and management structure are now more closely integrated with SBI’s broader digital asset business.
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