SBI Completes ¥46.7 Billion Acquisition of Bitcoin (BTC) Exchange Bitbank

SBI Closes ¥46.7 Billion Bitbank Deal

SBI Holdings has completed its takeover of Bitbank, and the Japanese crypto exchange confirmed on Oct. 1 that it now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the financial group. In its official announcement, posted to the company's X account, Bitbank said the closing share repurchases from MIXI and Ceres wrapped up the sequence of transactions agreed with SBI in June. The structure was deliberately layered. SBI executed the acquisition through SBICAH GK, its wholly owned unit, which first purchased 53,704 Bitbank shares from CEO Noriyuki Hirosue and other individual holders. Bitbank then issued 48,952 new shares to the SBI vehicle under a third-party allotment, and the proceeds from that step financed the buyback of the stakes held by MIXI, a major shareholder since a 2021 capital and business alliance, and by Ceres. SBI has disclosed a total acquisition value of roughly ¥46.7 billion across the share transfers and the capital injection. The deal moved quickly once it started. SBI flagged in May that it was weighing a share purchase and consolidated subsidiary status, the two sides signed the basic agreement and share transfer contract on June 25, and the closing landed at the start of October, on schedule. Bitbank had explored a public listing in Japan before choosing the sale route instead. For customers the message is continuity: accounts, balances and the available order types remain unchanged, and spot trading, where Bitcoin (BTC) price action drives the bulk of platform volumes, continues as before, along with the EPOS Crypto Card that lets users settle monthly credit card bills with Bitcoin (BTC) held on the exchange.

@bitbank_inc · X post

Posted to the company's X account.

View on X

New Board, Wider SBI Buildout

Governance switched the same day. Tomohiko Kondo, president and representative director of SBI VC Trade, joined Bitbank's board as a director, while Hirosue stays on as representative director, president and CEO and takes a planned outside director seat at SBI VC Trade. Three outside directors, Satoshi Takagi, Nobuhiro Kanayama and Masaya Kubota, stepped down. Kondo has run SBI VC Trade since June 2023 and became representative director of SBI Crypto Asset Holdings this June, with other seats at SBI Liquidity Market and DeFimans. Bitbank, long counted among Japan's Best Crypto Exchanges by spot volume, now sits inside a group assembling crypto infrastructure on several fronts at once. SBI VC Trade, one of SBI's main platforms for trading, custody and digital asset services in Japan, absorbed Bitpoint Japan in April 2026, adding another domestic trading operation. In June it became the distribution platform for Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin after the dollar-backed token cleared regulatory review in Japan, available to retail and institutional users through the VCTRADE platform. On the yen side, the group's JPYSC project uses SBI Shinsei Trust Bank for issuance, and in September SBI and Kyobo Life Insurance ran a cross-border test of yen and won stablecoin representations over the Canton Network, covering transfers, foreign exchange and settlement without routing through the dollar; test tokens were used, so no institutional funds moved. Overseas, SBI led a $76 million Series C round for EDX Markets in July, capital the US trading venue earmarked for expanding its clearing and settlement operations. Bitbank said it plans to draw on SBI Group's financial functions, customer network and management resources as it develops its exchange and digital asset businesses.

Consolidation Ahead for Japan's Exchanges

In our reading, the completion turns a bilateral deal into a sector signal: Japan's exchange market is consolidating under financial conglomerates rather than standing alone. SBI now owns both a retail spot venue and an institutional platform in the same market, and the ¥46.7 billion figure gives a rare public benchmark for what a licensed Japanese exchange with a spot franchise is worth. What the companies have not disclosed matters too. Per-share pricing for each tranche, any revenue targets under the group and a timeline for deeper integration between Bitbank and SBI VC Trade all remain open questions. The company's official announcement confirms only the ownership change and the board moves, nothing beyond.