Two months ago, SBI Holdings completed a merger with Bitpoint Japan. Now it's Bitbank. On June 24, Japan's largest financial conglomerate signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the exchange's shares for ¥46.7 billion ($289 million), with plans to fold it into the group as a wholly owned subsidiary.
Bitbank has operated since 2014 without a single hack — a genuine rarity among Asian exchanges that have weathered multiple bull-and-bust cycles. The platform currently serves around 1.5 million accounts. Combined with SBI VC Trade, the merged entity would reach nearly 2.9 million accounts and over ¥110 billion ($700 million+) in client assets, instantly becoming Japan's largest crypto exchange operator.
The timing is deliberate. This June, Japan's parliament passed legislation cutting the crypto capital gains tax from 55% to 20% and bringing digital assets under a securities-style regulatory framework. That's the kind of clarity institutional money had been waiting years for. SBI — a conglomerate with banking, brokerage, and insurance arms across 29 countries — is moving fast to claim market leadership before competitors follow.
The deal closes in two phases: individual shareholders transfer in August, corporate holders including media group Mixi follow in October. Bitbank says existing services — trading, withdrawals, everything — continue without interruption through the transition.
Two major acquisitions in two months is unprecedented for Japan's crypto industry. Smaller independent exchanges face a harder road: competing with SBI's balance sheet and regulatory relationships is a different kind of challenge. For Bitbank's users, the ownership change likely means more stability — SBI doesn't take reputational risk lightly.
