Coincheck Group to Acquire Aplo, a Registered Crypto Prime Brokerage for Institutional Investors
Coincheck Group, the holding company of Coincheck, one of Japan’s leading crypto asset exchanges, has entered into a stock purchase agreement to acquire Aplo, a digital asset prime brokerage for institutional crypto investors. Pursuant to the agreement, all issued and outstanding shares of Aplo are to be exchanged for newly issued ordinary shares of Coincheck Group. Closing of the transaction, subject to certain undertakings and conditions, is expected in October 2025.
This acquisition represents the first step of an important component of Coincheck Group’s stated mission—to make acquisitions for retail and institutional crypto businesses outside of Japan, including in Europe. As part of its business strategy, Coincheck Group is actively exploring potential opportunities to make acquisitions and strategic investments both inside and outside of Japan to add complementary companies or specialized knowledge, expertise, products, services, licenses, or technologies that could complement or enhance its business.
Founded in 2019 in Paris by Oliver Yates, Arnaud Carrere, Simon Douyer, and Jacques Lolieux, Aplo has built an innovative, proprietary institutional trading application and supporting infrastructure, combining algorithmic execution, unified access to deep liquidity, and a strong regulatory foundation. Aplo is currently registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider with the French Authority for the Financial Markets (AMF), and is in the process of obtaining a full crypto asset service provider license under the European Union’s Market in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA).
Aplo has grown rapidly and today serves more than 60 active institutional clients, including hedge funds, asset managers, banks and large corporates. Aplo was named “Prime Broker of the Year (EMEA)” at the 2025 Hedgeweek Global Digital Asset Awards. All four founders are to continue with Aplo after the closing.
Together, the companies will look to accelerate Aplo’s product roadmap and scale existing solutions, including:
- Financing solutions, such as cross-margining and deferred settlement to enhance clients’ capital efficiency;
- Expanding liquidity access and product offerings across multiple jurisdictions and to new institutional partners;
- Driving innovation in digital asset trading infrastructure to meet the growing needs of global markets; and
- Providing a B2B2C offering to banks interested in using Aplo’s execution platform to serve their customers.
The companies will also explore, as a potential synergy, whether Aplo can provide significant additional liquidity to some of Coincheck’s altcoin offerings to its customers.
“Aplo brings us proven technology, expertise recognized by institutional clients in Europe, and a high performance team with an entrepreneurial culture,” said Gary Simanson, CEO of Coincheck Group. “By combining our strengths, we believe we will be better positioned to meet the needs of institutional crypto investors, which includes plans to provide a valuable B2B2C offering to banks looking to make crypto investing available to their customers.”
Norbert Gehrke
