A giant financial group from Japan has just added a crucial piece to its Southeast Asian chessboard. SBI Holdings - an online securities firm with over 14 million users and assets under custody exceeding $308 billion - has officially taken a majority stake in Singapore-based crypto exchange Coinhako after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) approved the transaction on July 16, 2026.
What is fascinating is not just the acquisition itself, but what SBI is constructing behind it: a digital asset network spanning across borders, currencies, and blockchains - and Coinhako is merely one node in a much larger map.
Announced in February, the Acquisition Has Now Closed
SBI had already declared its intention to acquire Coinhako back in February 2026. The process has only now wrapped up following regulatory clearance. The transaction was carried out through SBI Ventures Asset Pte. Ltd. in the form of a capital injection, combined with share purchases from existing Coinhako investors - turning the exchange into a consolidated subsidiary of SBI. Interestingly, the transaction value, equity percentage, and Coinhako’s valuation were not publicly disclosed at all.
Coinhako is no newcomer. Founded in 2014 and operated by Hako Technology Pte. Ltd., the exchange holds a Major Payment Institution license from MAS, while its affiliate Alpha Hako Ltd. is registered as a virtual asset service provider in the British Virgin Islands.
SBI Chairman and President Yoshitaka Kitao stated that this acquisition is part of a strategy to connect exchanges across borders so investors can trade without being restricted by national borders or currency differences. On Coinhako’s end, CEO and co-founder Yusho Liu called joining SBI a “natural step” after a decade of operating in Singapore.
Not Just an Exchange - SBI Is Dominating the Entire Value Chain
This is where the bigger picture comes into view. SBI plans to combine Coinhako’s customer base and regional network with a yen-based stablecoin named JPYSC (developed alongside Startale Group), as well as a tokenization partnership with Ondo Finance for Japanese equities. Just a day before the Coinhako acquisition was finalized, SBI Global Asset Management had even launched the JX token - a Japanese high-dividend equity strategy - on the Solana network via DigiFT, targeting institutional investors.
This expansion is also supported by a new partnership with the Solana Foundation, which took an equity stake in SBI R3 Japan. The entity will be rebranded as SBI Solana Global and will focus on stablecoin issuance and the tokenization of real-world assets such as corporate bonds and real estate.
According to Joseph Goh, Asia Pacific director at crypto investment advisory firm Areta, SBI is the first financial group in Asia to pursue the entire digital asset value chain at once - from issuance, settlement, trading infrastructure, and asset management to retail distribution - across the region, not just domestically. In his view, the “real prize” lies in yen-based onchain settlement.
Grand Ambitions, but With an Honest Footnote
Behind these towering ambitions, SBI has also been candid about its limitations. JPYSC can currently only be used within SBI VC Trade accounts and does not yet support withdrawals to external wallets or settlement via public blockchains - technical limitations acknowledged by an SBI spokesperson. This means the “borderless” vision still leaves substantial technical homework to be done.
The context becomes even clearer when looking at SBI’s moves this month alone: leading a $76 million Series C funding round for institutional exchange EDX Markets, and planning to acquire Bitbank for $289 million to build one of Japan’s largest crypto exchanges. Coinhako, in other words, is the Southeast Asian piece of a far broader puzzle. For investors in the region, what is worth watching is not just how big a single acquisition is, but how quickly a traditional financial player can assemble end-to-end crypto infrastructure - because once the network lights up, the competitive landscape for Asian exchanges could change faster than expected.
Reported via crypto.news.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
