SBI Holdings closed its majority acquisition of Singapore crypto platform Coinhako on July 16, 2026 after clearing Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) approval, and the strategic pitch is a Japan–Southeast Asia settlement corridor running on JPYSC, Japan’s first trust-type yen stablecoin. There is a problem with that pitch, and it comes from SBI itself: the company’s own spokesperson has confirmed that JPYSC currently cannot leave SBI’s exchange. The instrument meant to power a cross-border corridor does not yet support withdrawals to external wallets or settlement over public blockchains — which makes this a licence acquisition dressed as a stablecoin strategy.
The transaction ran through SBI Ventures Asset Pte. Ltd., a wholly owned Singapore subsidiary, which took a majority stake in Holdbuild Pte. Ltd., the Coinhako group parent, via fresh capital injection and share purchases from existing shareholders. Terms were undisclosed at closing, as at the February 13, 2026 announcement of intent, and no party has disclosed the stake percentage or deal value. Coinhako, founded in 2014 by Yusho Liu and Gerry Eng, operates through Hako Technology Pte. Ltd., which has held an MAS Major Payment Institution licence for Digital Payment Token services under the Payment Services Act since May 2022, and Alpha Hako Ltd., registered with the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission.
The licence is the asset. MAS’s Digital Token Service Provider regime, effective June 30, 2025, forced Singapore-incorporated providers serving only overseas clients either to obtain a licence or to cease operating, and the authority signalled that approvals would be granted only in limited circumstances — a threshold that pushed Binance and others out of the jurisdiction. In a market where a new MAS licence is close to unobtainable, an MPI licence held continuously since 2022 is not a component of the transaction. It is the transaction. That reframes the deal from an exchange rollup into the purchase of one of the last readily acquirable regulated on-ramps in Singapore, and it explains why terms stayed private.
“The SBI Group seeks to establish a global corridor for digital assets by connecting exchanges worldwide, ultimately realizing a world where investors can make optimal investment choices without being hindered by borders or currency barriers. Within this strategy, Singapore plays a vital role as a frontrunner in digital asset regulation.”
— Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President and CEO, SBI Holdings (official notice)
The build-out behind that statement is real and expensive. CoinDesk reports the group at more than 14 million users and $308 billion in assets under custody, with a roughly $289 million acquisition of Bitbank expected to close in October 2026, a $76 million Series C in EDX Markets and $25 million in Gauntlet. SBI R3 Japan is being renamed SBI Solana Global with the Solana Foundation taking an equity stake, and an Ondo Finance partnership covers tokenising Japanese equities with JPYSC settlement. Analysts read the direction clearly.
“SBI is the first financial group in Asia to go after the entire digital asset value chain at once, from issuance and settlement through trading infrastructure, asset management and retail distribution, and to do it across the region rather than only at home.”
— Joseph Goh, Director and Head of Asia Pacific, Areta (CoinDesk)
Goh’s assessment that “the real prize is the yen side of onchain settlement” is where the strategy either works or stalls. Yen-denominated on-chain settlement is a materially different competitive proposition from another dollar-stablecoin venue — it is the one thing US-issuer incumbents cannot replicate. But an SBI spokesperson told CoinDesk that JPYSC’s “use is currently limited to accounts within SBI VC Trade, and it does not yet support withdrawals to external wallets or remittances and settlements via public blockchains.” A closed-loop token inside a single Japanese exchange cannot settle anything in Singapore. Until that changes, Coinhako is distribution waiting for a product.
The regulatory silence matters for anyone modelling approval risk regionally. MAS issued no public statement; its role was confined to granting change-of-control approval, and no competitor reaction has appeared on the record. The absence of comment is not endorsement of the corridor thesis — the authority approved a change of control, not a business model.
The historical parallel is instructive. SBI’s sequence — absorbing TaoTao, Bitpoint Japan and DMM Bitcoin’s migrated accounts, then Bitbank, EDX, Gauntlet and now Coinhako — replays what Japanese megabanks did across Southeast Asia in the 2010s: buy licensed local distribution, plug in home-currency settlement, export the yen. Two differences matter. The settlement layer is now programmable, raising the ceiling; and the regulatory moat is narrower, because MAS licences are scarce in a way bank charters were not. That makes the JPYSC limitation the variable to track. The corridor is a decade-scale bet whose central instrument is not yet functional off-platform, with no announced timeline for when it will be.
Related coverage: Japan folding crypto into securities law, Visa’s stablecoin platform for banks and fintechs, and Swift’s tokenised-deposit ledger going live with 17 banks.
This article is informational analysis only and is not financial, investment, or trading advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and can lose substantial value rapidly. Past performance and historical patterns do not guarantee future results. Do your own research and consult a regulated financial adviser before making any investment decision.
Karthik Subramanian
Karthik Subramanian is a founder, writer, and technology consultant with nine years in the crypto ecosystem. He covers token economics, L1/L2 infrastructure, DeFi protocols, wallets/custody, and the bridge between crypto and forex—broker technology, liquidity, and macro drivers. Karthik’s writing focuses on clear, practical frameworks that help professionals evaluate new products and on-chain innovation alongside FX market realities.
