The SBI Holdings Coinhako acquisition closed on 16 July 2026, making the Singapore crypto exchange a consolidated subsidiary of the Japanese financial group after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) granted regulatory approval. SBI did not disclose the investment size, the percentage of shares acquired, or Coinhako’s valuation.
The transaction was executed via a capital injection through SBI Ventures Asset Pte. Ltd. and a purchase of shares from existing investors. The legal holding entity is Holdbuild Pte. Ltd., trading as Coinhako, with co-founders Yusho Liu and Gerry Eng remaining in place.
One founding-date discrepancy is worth flagging: the snippet describes Coinhako as established in 2014, but SBI’s own investor presentation puts the founding at 2013, consistent with the MAS registry, which lists Hako Technology Pte. Ltd.’s incorporation date as 5 December 2013. The 2013 date is used here.
A MAS-Licensed Foothold in Southeast Asia
Coinhako’s operating entity, Hako Technology Pte. Ltd., holds a Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, authorised for Digital Payment Token (DPT) services and Cross-border Remittance under the Payment Services Act. That dual authorisation is the asset SBI is buying as much as the platform itself.
The exchange has over 480,000 users, according to Solana Compass. SBI’s stated intent is to layer its own financial products, including stablecoins and tokenised securities, onto Coinhako’s regional customer base and distribution infrastructure.
SBI Chairman and President Yoshitaka Kitao framed the deal as part of a broader plan to connect exchanges across multiple jurisdictions, allowing investors to trade across borders without being constrained by currency differences. Coinhako’s regulatory status in Singapore was central to that rationale.
Coinhako co-founder Gerry Eng put it more directly, per Fintech Singapore: ‘With SBI’s backing, we now have the institutional scale, the ecosystem, and the mandate to deliver the next generation of digital financial services to our customers across the region.’
CEO Yusho Liu described the deal as a natural progression: ‘Joining the SBI Group is a natural step for Coinhako to move to the next stage of growth.’
SBI Holdings Coinhako Acquisition in Regional Context
Coinhako is one piece of an accelerating exchange roll-up. According to Solana Compass, citing CoinDesk, SBI separately agreed to acquire Bitbank, Japan’s largest domestic crypto exchange by volume, for approximately $289 million, with that deal targeted to close in October 2026. SBI also led a $76 million Series C for EDX Markets, the US institutional crypto exchange. The group manages more than $308 billion in assets across more than 14 million customer accounts, giving it distribution that most crypto-native operators cannot replicate.
The strategic logic is straightforward: a regulated Singapore venue (Coinhako), a dominant Japanese retail venue (Bitbank), and a US institutional venue (EDX Markets) form a linked network. Stablecoins and tokenised assets can then flow across that network rather than sitting in isolated liquidity pools.
On the product side, SBI has been developing JPYSC, a yen-backed stablecoin built with blockchain company Startale, and has partnered with Ondo Finance to bring tokenised financial products into the ecosystem. JPYSC is earmarked for settlement and collateral within the combined group, including potential integration with Coinhako’s regional customer network.
Two days before the Coinhako deal closed, SBI Global Asset Management and regulated real-world asset exchange DigiFT launched the SBI Japan High Dividend Equity Strategy Token, issued on Solana. Per the ACCESS Newswire press release dated 14 July 2026, it is the first time a Japanese asset manager’s listed-equity strategy has been brought on-chain through DigiFT’s regulated infrastructure. Ecosystem participants on Solana include Solana Company, Huma Finance, and Plume. The product targets accredited and institutional investors.
The build-out now spans a licenced Singapore exchange, a yen stablecoin, a tokenised equity product on Solana, a US institutional venue, and a pending majority stake in Japan’s largest crypto exchange by volume. The binary to watch is whether Bitbank clears its own regulatory hurdles in time for the October 2026 close: that deal, at $289 million, is the largest single bet in SBI’s exchange network and the one that anchors the Japan leg of the entire structure.
