Svmuu News: SBI Group has announced the acquisition of Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen, approximately $289 million. Through this acquisition, SBI’s cryptocurrency custody balance is expected to exceed 1 trillion yen, equivalent to approximately $6.2 billion, making it the largest cryptocurrency business in Japan.
A subsidiary of SBI Holdings will acquire Bitbank’s shares from individual shareholders, including its founders, in August. Subsequently, Bitbank will acquire the shares held by existing shareholders Mixi and Ceres by the end of October. Combined with SBI VC Trade’s account data as of April, the total number of accounts after the merger will be approximately 2.92 million, with total assets under custody amounting to approximately 1.1 trillion yen.