Author: Zen, PANews
The large-scale Asian Web3 industry conference, WebX, has just concluded in Tokyo. In a video address, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed his hope that the synergies between the Web3 conference and government policies would further advance Japan’s innovation ecosystem.
The bustling crowd on-site stands in stark contrast to the sluggish state of the crypto market, with many participants joking that they felt the charm of the crypto bull market era.
As part of SBI Holdings’ expanding business portfolio, this conference allowed the seasoned player in the crypto market to steal the spotlight. SBI not only served as the title sponsor, but its chairman, Yoshitaka Kitao, also took the stage to deliver a keynote speech. Just last October, SBI acquired a 51% stake in CoinPost, the organizer of WebX, and brought it under the group’s umbrella.
This development echoes SBI’s recent intensive activities in the digital asset space. Over the past month, SBI Holdings has participated in a $175 million funding round for the decentralized lending protocol Morpho, launched the Japanese yen-backed stablecoin JPYSC, and introduced Ripple’s USD-backed stablecoin RLUSD in Japan.
In July, it invested $125 million in Gauntlet, a DeFi risk management and yield strategy platform, and established a strategic partnership with the Solana Foundation during WebX, planning to expand its business in areas such as stablecoins, RWA, cross-border settlement, and institutional on-chain services.
Compared to its earlier broad initiatives centered on Ripple, exchanges, market making, and digital securities, SBI’s recent strategic focus has become more concentrated. This 27-year-old traditional financial group is attempting to reconfigure settlement, asset issuance, trading, credit, and asset management from traditional finance onto the blockchain.
From Decentralized Layout to On-Chain Finance: SBI Integrates Digital Asset Services
SBI has been in the cryptocurrency industry for a decade. Early investments in Ripple, participation in the enterprise blockchain company R3, and the subsequent establishment of cryptocurrency trading, institutional liquidity, and digital securities businesses have made SBI one of the earliest and most broadly positioned traditional financial groups in Japan in the digital assets space.
However, the early businesses were relatively dispersed: SBI VC Trade handled cryptocurrency trading and custody, B2C2 provided liquidity to global institutions, and the digital securities business explored the tokenization of bonds, funds, and other real-world assets. Only in the past two years has "on-chain finance" emerged as a new framework connecting these businesses.
In the strategic materials released in May 2026, SBI categorized on-chain finance into six layers—settlement, assets, markets, yield vaults, distribution, and investors—and proposed the development of the "SBI On-Chain Asset Management Platform."
According to its plan, JPYSC, USDC, and RLUSD handle settlement and fund transfers; the blockchain and RWA platform manage asset issuance and trading; DeFi enhances capital efficiency; and the group’s internal asset management, securities, and digital assets businesses are responsible for product design and customer engagement.
From recent investments, SBI is strictly following this structure and layering. In its own strategic materials, SBI places Circle’s financial blockchain, Arc, in the “settlement layer,” Morpho in the “market layer,” and Gauntlet in the “yield vault layer.”
This classification also reveals SBI’s investment strategy—filling in the missing foundational capabilities in its on-chain financial ecosystem.
Start with stablecoins to build a yen and USD settlement network.
Within SBI's on-chain financial framework, stablecoins are the first component to enter actual operations.
On June 24, JPYSC, jointly developed by SBI and Startale, officially launched. Issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank, distributed by SBI VC Trade, and primarily technologically developed by Startale, JPYSC is Japan’s first yen-backed stablecoin issued under a trust structure. Designed in accordance with Japan’s Fund Settlement Law as a “Type 3 Electronic Payment Instrument,” its reserve assets are managed by the trust bank, with each JPYSC pegged 1:1 to one Japanese yen.
An important distinction offered by the trust structure is that JPYSC is not subject to the 1 million JPY transfer and holding limits imposed on partially funded and overseas-issued stablecoins. Theoretically, this makes it better suited for corporate fund transfers, large-scale settlements, RWA transactions, and cross-border payments.
However, JPYSC is still some distance away from open on-chain circulation. Currently, the product is only available internally within SBI VC Trade accounts, and users cannot transfer JPYSC to or from external wallets. SBI has stated that it will transition to public blockchain circulation once legal interpretations, tax practices, and operational arrangements are further clarified.
While external transfers have not yet been enabled, SBI has begun expanding the use cases for JPYSC within the platform. SBI VC Trade announced on July 16 that applications for JPYSC lending services would open, with the service officially launching on July 23. Users can lend their JPYSC to the platform and receive returns paid in JPYSC upon maturity; the initial annualized yield is 3%, with a typical annualized rate expected to remain around 1% to 3%.
Beyond Japanese yen stablecoins, US dollar stablecoins provide connectivity on the other end.
In March 2025, SBI VC Trade became Japan’s first platform to offer USDC trading services to retail users. Since then, SBI’s partnership with Circle has expanded from stablecoins to include capital and business collaboration.
In March 2025, the two parties signed an agreement to establish a joint venture, Circle SBI Japan, with SBI and Circle each holding a 50% stake, primarily to promote the circulation of USDC in Japan and expand payment and other financial applications. In June of the same year, during Circle’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the SBI Group invested $50 million in Circle shares as a strategic investor.
In March 2026, SBI VC Trade launched a USDC lending service, extending the use of stablecoins beyond trading and payments to include yield-generating products.
In addition to USDC, SBI VC Trade further launched RLUSD in June this year. RLUSD is issued by Ripple’s regulated trust company and is treated by SBI as Japan’s first “Type 4 Electronic Payment Instrument.” As a result, SBI’s licensed digital asset platform now supports JPYC, USDC, and RLUSD simultaneously, creating a product structure that features both yen and dollar-stablecoins in parallel.
The roles of the three stablecoins are not identical. JPYSC connects Japanese domestic bank funds with yen-denominated assets; USDC offers broader global on-chain liquidity; and RLUSD builds on the decade-long partnership between SBI and Ripple, targeting institutional payments and cross-border financial scenarios.
SBI also aims to further promote cross-currency settlement between JPYSC and USD stablecoins, and explore the application of stablecoins in card clearing, cross-border payments, and tokenized asset settlement. The group has already partnered with Visa on digital financial initiatives and tested offline payments using USDC.
Bring traditional assets on-chain and connect to global markets
Stablecoins solve how funds enter the blockchain; the next step is bringing investable financial assets on-chain.
In this phase, Startale is becoming a key technology partner for SBI. In March of this year, SBI announced an investment of approximately $50 million in Startale and plans to classify it as an equity-method affiliate. The two parties are currently collaborating on two core products: the Japanese yen stablecoin JPYSC and the Layer 1 network Strium, designed for tokenized securities and RWA trading.
The Strium project was officially announced in February this year. The network aims to support 24/7 spot and derivatives trading for tokenized stocks, bonds, and RWA-related products, seeking to establish an on-chain market free from traditional trading hours. Currently, Strium remains in the proof-of-concept stage, and the timelines for the testnet and commercial deployment have not been officially confirmed.
SBI also established a joint venture with Singapore’s licensed RWA platform DigiFT, named SBI Onchain, with SBI holding a 60% stake. The platform plans to build a tokenization, legal, and risk management framework around Japanese assets and connect with overseas on-chain capital. SBI’s long-term vision is to convert securities, funds, and other financial products within the group into on-chain assets and settle transactions using stablecoins.
On July 13, SBI’s collaboration with Solana further expanded this framework. Under the plan, the Solana Foundation will participate in the future development of SBI R3 Japan, which is set to be renamed “SBI Solana Global” and will focus on businesses involving stablecoins such as JPYSC, corporate bonds and commercial paper as RWA, cross-border settlements, institutional on-chain financial services, and AI agent payments.
This partnership also reflects SBI’s efforts to strengthen its multi-chain strategy. The group continues to collaborate with Startale on Strium, a platform for tokenized financial assets, while maintaining its presence on XRPL, Canton, and Ethereum; Solana offers a high-performance public chain and a gateway to global liquidity. The specific division of roles among different networks in the future has not yet been fully disclosed, but SBI has clearly stated that it does not intend to tie its financial products or customers to a single blockchain.
From Morpho to Gauntlet: Completing On-Chain Credit and Asset Management
While stablecoins and RWA primarily address how funds and assets are brought on-chain, Morpho and Gauntlet tackle the question of how to lend, allocate, and generate returns after funds are on-chain.
In June, SBI participated in Morpho’s new funding round, which raised $175 million. The round was co-led by Paradigm, a16z crypto, and Ribbit Capital. Unlike early DeFi lending models that used uniform asset and risk parameters set by the protocol, Morpho employs a modular architecture that enables institutions and developers to create isolated lending markets and independently select collateral, risk conditions, and yield strategies.
SBI classifies it as part of the "market layer" of on-chain finance in its official strategic materials, valuing precisely this credit infrastructure that can be embedded into banks, fintech platforms, and asset management products.
In July, SBI led Gauntlet’s $125 million Series C round through its U.S. subsidiary. Gauntlet initially gained recognition for its DeFi risk models, providing market parameters, liquidation risk analysis, and stress testing services for multiple lending protocols. In recent years, it has increasingly shifted toward yield vault management, designing on-chain allocation strategies based on assets, yield objectives, and risk preferences.
Morpho and Gauntlet are highly complementary in their business functions. Morpho provides the underlying credit network for building lending markets, while Gauntlet assesses risk, designs vaults, and allocates capital on top of these markets. The former is closer to market infrastructure in on-chain finance, while the latter handles asset management and risk optimization.
Following recent intensive strategic deployments, SBI’s on-chain financial ecosystem has taken on a clear structure. The advantage of this model lies in SBI’s ability to avoid building all technological components from scratch; instead, the group can acquire and integrate technologies from native on-chain companies through investment and partnerships, then leverage its own financial licenses, customer base, and distribution network to drive implementation.
However, this on-chain financial system is still in the process of being built, and many initiatives are still far from large-scale implementation. Currently, SBI has established a relatively comprehensive strategic framework, but whether different business lines can effectively synergize and ultimately evolve into a continuously operating on-chain financial system still requires time and real-world validation.