SBI Holdings completed its approximately ¥46.7 billion ($290 million) acquisition of Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank on October 1, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. The transaction followed a three-step structure: an SBI unit bought shares from CEO Noriyuki Hirosue and other individual shareholders, subscribed to newly issued shares, and Bitbank used the proceeds to buy back all shares held by MIXI and Ceres. Bitbank said customer accounts, trading and services would continue unchanged. SBI VC Trade President Tomohiko Kondo joined Bitbank’s board, while Hirosue remained CEO and became an outside director at SBI VC Trade. The combined group expects about ¥1.1 trillion ($6.97 billion) in custody assets and 2.92 million crypto accounts, making it Japan’s largest exchange platform by custodied assets. Bitbank is also a major XRP/JPY venue, with 5.82 million XRP traded there over the 24 hours cited. The acquisition deepens SBI’s relationship with Ripple as the group expands RLUSD distribution in Japan and develops the JPYSC yen stablecoin through SBI Shinsei Trust Bank. SBI also completed a Korea-Japan cross-border stablecoin test and said the deal’s impact on results for the year ending March 2027 would be minor.