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SBI Holdings is buying Bitbank, one of Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, for 46.7 billion yen, roughly $289 million. The deal will give SBI full ownership of the exchange.
SBI will execute the acquisition through its wholly-owned subsidiary, SBICAH GK. The company plans to purchase shares from a mix of stakeholders, including Bitbank’s founders, individual shareholders, and corporate entities like MIXI, Inc. and CERES INC.
The timeline is staggered. Share purchases from individual holders are targeted for August 2026, while the MIXI and CERES repurchases are expected to wrap up by late October 2026. SBI has noted the transaction is expected to have a minor impact on its fiscal year 2027 results.
The groundwork for this deal was laid months ago. SBI Chairman and President Yoshitaka Kitao signed a letter of intent on May 1, 2026, signaling the company’s desire to establish a capital and business alliance with Bitbank. That letter has now turned into a full buyout.
Once the acquisition closes, the combined entity’s custody services will manage approximately 1.1 trillion yen, which translates to somewhere between $6.2 billion and $6.8 billion. That’s spread across nearly 2.92 million accounts, based on data as of April 30, 2026.
Just two months earlier, in April 2026, the company completed the integration of Bitpoint Japan into its existing exchange arm, SBI VC Trade. Bitbank is the next piece of that puzzle.
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