SBI Digital Asset Holdings Co., Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI Holdings, one of Japan's largest financial conglomerates. SBI Holdings was founded in 1999 by Yoshitaka Kitao, who remains its president and CEO. The digital asset arm was established around 2019 to consolidate SBI's growing portfolio of blockchain and crypto-native investments under a single entity. Headquartered in Tokyo, the firm operates within Japan's increasingly structured crypto regulatory environment and has positioned itself as a bridge between traditional finance and digital assets.
SBI Holdings' early and sustained bet on blockchain infrastructure sets SBI Digital Asset Holdings apart from most corporate venture arms in Asia. The parent group holds an estimated 10% stake in Ripple – making it one of the largest Ripple shareholders outside the United States – and runs SBI Ripple Asia as a joint venture to promote XRP-based payment corridors across the region. This relationship has shaped the firm's broader thesis: back infrastructure-layer projects with clear enterprise and payments utility, rather than speculative tokens.
Notable investments
- Ripple – long-term strategic stake; SBI Ripple Asia promotes XRP-based cross-border payments across Japan and Southeast Asia
- B2C2 – SBI acquired this London-based OTC crypto market maker in 2020, giving the group direct exposure to institutional liquidity provision
- Securitize – digital securities issuance and compliance platform; SBI participated alongside BlackRock and KKR
- Copper.co – institutional crypto custody and prime brokerage; SBI joined a Series B round
- TaxBit – crypto tax and accounting software; SBI participated in a funding round alongside PayPal Ventures
- Animoca Brands – Web3 gaming and metaverse infrastructure; SBI joined as a strategic investor
- Sygnum Bank – Swiss digital asset bank; SBI participated in a growth round as part of its European expansion strategy
Public information on the full list of 13 portfolio companies is limited. SBI Holdings' annual reports and press releases confirm several of the above, but deal sizes are generally not disclosed for individual investments made through the digital asset holding vehicle.
Team
Yoshitaka Kitao is the driving force behind SBI's digital asset strategy. As president and CEO of SBI Holdings, he has been one of the most outspoken advocates for XRP and blockchain adoption among Japanese institutional leaders. He joined SBI's predecessor firm, SoftBank Finance, from Nomura Securities in the late 1990s. Specific leadership of SBI Digital Asset Holdings as a separate entity – including a dedicated CEO or managing directors – is not clearly disclosed in English-language public sources. SBI Holdings operates a large executive bench across its financial, insurance, and asset management divisions.
Recent activity
Through 2024 and into 2025, SBI Digital Asset Holdings accelerated activity in step with Japan's maturing crypto regulation. Japan's Financial Services Agency has issued clearer guidance on digital asset funds and stablecoin issuance, creating more room for institutional products. SBI launched crypto asset management offerings targeting retail and institutional clients domestically, and expanded its SBI Crypto mining operations. The group has also signaled interest in tokenized real-world assets (RWA), consistent with investments in platforms like Securitize that underpin tokenized fund infrastructure. SBI's partnership with Franklin Templeton on asset management products indicates the firm is building toward distribution of tokenized funds through its existing brokerage network in Japan.
SBI Digital Asset Holdings occupies a rare position: a corporate investor with both a large balance sheet and genuine operating businesses across crypto custody, OTC trading (via B2C2), and payments infrastructure. Its close alignment with Ripple and XRP remains both its clearest strength and its most concentrated risk – Ripple's ongoing legal history with the SEC has been a recurring overhang. As Japan cements its status as one of the more crypto-friendly G7 jurisdictions, SBI is well placed to channel institutional capital into digital assets, though the firm's full portfolio composition and fund-level performance data remain largely outside the public domain. For verified disclosures, see SBI Holdings investor relations.