SBI Group has expanded its footprint in the digital asset space.
The Japanese financial conglomerate has announced the acquisition of Bitbank, the country's third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, for roughly $289 million.
The acquisition will be conducted in several stages. First, a subsidiary of SBI Holdings will buy back Bitbank shares from individual shareholders, which includes the exchange's founder.
After this, Bitbank will acquire the shares held by corporate shareholders MIXI and Ceres by the end of October.
The exchange will merge with SBI VC Trade, one of its key competitors. Following this, the total number of accounts will surpass 2.9 million.
The combined assets under management (AUM) are expected to hit roughly 1.1 trillion. This will make it the largest crypto business in the domestic market.
By comparison, major industry competitors like bitFlyer and Coincheck manage roughly 960 billion yen and 800 billion yen, respectively.
Binance Japan and Rakuten Wallet, which leverage their massive corporate ecosystems, will also be left behind.
A win for the XRP ecosystem
The deal can be viewed as a win for the XRP ecosystem.
SBI already operates one of the largest XRP holdings outside of the United States.
As reported by U.Today, Ripple and SBI Group jointly announced the official launch of RLUSD, the company's highly regulated stablecoin, after the red-hot asset received regulatory approval from the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA).
The RLUSD stablecoin will be available to both institutional and retail users. It will serve as a bridge for payments, tokenization, and collateral management.
Ripple and SBI Group have been collaborating since 2016, so this latest integration does not come as a surprise.
