One day before the Coinhako deal closed, SBI was already signing a separate agreement with Ondo Finance to tokenize Japanese equities. That back-to-back timing says a lot about the pace at which Japan's largest online brokerage is assembling its digital asset empire across Asia.

SBI finalized the Coinhako acquisition on July 16, after the Monetary Authority of Singapore granted its approval. The transaction was structured through SBI Ventures Asset Pte. Ltd., combining newly issued shares with purchases from existing shareholders. Financial terms were not disclosed.

What SBI Actually Bought

Coinhako brings two things that money alone cannot quickly replicate: a user base of more than 400,000 retail and institutional customers, and a Major Payment Institution license held by its subsidiary Hako Technology. That MPI license is issued by Singapore's central bank and puts SBI inside one of Asia's most tightly regulated crypto markets from day one, skipping years of potential licensing delays.

Singapore matters here not just as a market but as a hub. SBI plans to hold its first overseas branch managers' meeting in the city later this year, signaling that the country will anchor the group's regional coordination going forward.

Stablecoins, Tokenized Stocks and a "Global Corridor"

Chairman and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao has framed SBI's broader ambition as building a global digital asset corridor, a regulated pipeline for moving value across borders. The Coinhako deal slots into that vision alongside several other moving parts:

  • JPYSC, SBI's yen-backed stablecoin, set to handle on-chain settlement and collateral management in the Ondo Finance partnership for tokenized Japanese equities.
  • The pending acquisition of domestic crypto exchange Bitbank, announced in June.
  • An existing investment in EDX Markets, the institutional trading platform backed by major Wall Street names.

Each piece targets a different layer of the same stack: regulated exchanges for retail and institutional flow, stablecoin rails for settlement, and tokenized real-world assets to pull traditional finance on-chain.

Speed of Execution Sets SBI Apart

What stands out is not any single deal but the cadence. Bitbank in June, Ondo partnership and Coinhako closing in July, with Singapore branch meetings on the calendar before year-end. Rivals building similar regional networks typically spend years negotiating single licenses in markets like Singapore. SBI bought its way in through an already-licensed operator and kept moving.

The group now controls regulated crypto infrastructure in Japan and Singapore, with stablecoin and tokenization layers connecting them. Whether that corridor actually carries significant volume will be the test, but the scaffolding is going up fast.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.