digital assets
Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings and the Solana Foundation have entered into a strategic partnership to build an on-chain financial market originating from Japan, aiming to export Japanese stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to Asian and global markets. As part of the agreement, the Solana Foundation
digital assets
SBI VC Trade, a consolidated cryptocurrency exchange subsidiary of SBI Holdings, announced the launch of "JPYSC Lending," marking Japan's first trust-based, Japanese Yen-denominated stablecoin lending service. Applications for the new asset-generation product will open on July 16, 2026, with the official lending period
digital assets
SBI XDC Network APAC, a joint venture between Japan’s SBI Holdings and UAE-based TradeFinex Tech, has completed two major initiatives aimed at accelerating enterprise blockchain adoption across the Asia-Pacific region. The company successfully executed an online trade factoring pilot utilizing digital corporate IDs with TOPPAN, while simultaneously
digital assets
Tokenization platform Progmat has successfully migrated its digital securities issuance and management infrastructure from the Corda 5 distributed ledger to an Avalanche L1 network. The infrastructure overhaul, dubbed "Project Keystone," transitions the entirety of Japan's leading security token platform—currently managing over ¥452 billion ($2.8
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred seventy-second edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Despite an avalanche of stablecoin and tokenization announcements, which are a seasonal phenomenon ahead of the WebX conference, the headline news of the past week is the collapse of payment processor Zentoshin, which is suspected of falsifying
venture capital
SBI Holdings has been the lead investor in a $76 million Series C funding round for EDX Markets, a Chicago-based digital asset technology firm catering exclusively to institutional clients. EDX Markets operates a dedicated trading platform and central clearinghouse designed to provide institutional investors with a highly liquid, low-
digital assets
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group (SuMiTG) has announced a new proof-of-concept initiative to tokenize a Cayman Islands-domiciled money market-type fund on a public blockchain. Led by its subsidiary, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank (SuMiTB), the project aims to pave the way for the full-scale commercial issuance of
digital assets
Metaplanet (TSE: 3350) has announced a strategic four-party collaboration to explore the development of a digital credit market in Japan, utilizing a combination of Bitcoin, stablecoins, and security tokens (STs). The joint feasibility study brings together Metaplanet, its soon-to-be-renamed brokerage unit Metaplanet Securities (formerly Siiibo Securities)
venture capital
Decentralized finance (DeFi) risk-modeling firm Gauntlet has secured a $125 million Series C financing round led exclusively by Japanese financial services conglomerate SBI Holdings. The single-participant round, which finalized in June, marks the largest capital infusion for the New York-based startup since its inception in 2018. While
digital assets
A consortium of leading financial institutions and blockchain firms has successfully completed a joint proof-of-concept (PoC) exploring the cross-border circulation of domestic security tokens (STs). The collaborative initiative included SBI Securities, Daiwa Securities, Singapore-based SBI Digital Markets and Penguin Securities, and blockchain developer BOOSTRY. The project
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred seventy-first edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. All is well with gender equality in Japan. Female lawmakers get two more bathroom stalls. Here is what we are going to cover this week: * Venture Capital & Private Markets: Nudge raises JPY 1.48bn through asset
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred seventieth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. What a night 😢 After witnessing first Japan, and then Germany exit the World Cup, your opportunistic author shifted his allegiance to our friendly Dutch neighbors, only to.....well, as you see, I will likely have to switch colors