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Ripple Partner SBI Officially Acquires Bitbank in $289 Million Deal, Expanding Crypto Assets Beyond $7 Billion SBI Holdings, Ripple's longest-standing strategic partner in Asia, has officially sealed the deal of acquiring leading Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen (approximately $289 million). More notably, this landmark deal is one of the largest crypto acquisitions in Japan's history and will make SBI the country's biggest digital asset operator by assets under management. The acquisition will be completed in phases. An SBI subsidiary will first purchase shares held by founder Noriyuki Hirosue and other individual shareholders before acquiring the remaining stakes from major investors MIXI and Ceres later this year. Once the transaction closes, Bitbank will become a consolidated subsidiary of SBI Holdings, formalizing discussions that began in May. The acquisition significantly expands SBI's footprint in Japan's regulated crypto sector. Combined with SBI VC Trade, the group will oversee approximately 2.92 million customer accounts and more than 1.1 trillion yen (over $7 billion) in digital assets under custody, surpassing major domestic rivals such as bitFlyer and Coincheck. Why It Matters for Ripple The deal carries broader significance because of SBI's nearly decade-long partnership with Ripple. Since launching SBI Ripple Asia in 2016, the two companies have worked closely to accelerate the adoption of Ripple's blockchain technology and XRP-powered payment solutions across Japan and the Asia-Pacific region. SBI has remained one of Ripple's most influential institutional allies, helping build one of Asia's largest cross-border payment networks while consistently backing XRP adoption. Its regulated exchange, SBI VC Trade , was among Japan's earliest platforms to list XRP and later became the country's first exchange to support Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin. This relationship has been championed by SBI Chairman and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao, a former Ripple board member and long-time advocate of XRP, who has consistently backed Ripple's expansion and its vision for blockchain-powered global payments. A Bigger Stage for XRP in Japan While SBI has not announced immediate changes to Bitbank's operations, the acquisition creates a much larger regulated crypto platform that could accelerate the adoption of Ripple's payment infrastructure, XRP, and RLUSD throughout Japan. The announcement also follows another major SBI-backed initiative, with gumi recently unveiling an $86 million XRP-focused strategy , launching an $18.3 million crypto investment fund, and expanding institutional blockchain infrastructure. Why does this matter? Well, these developments underscore SBI's accelerating commitment to digital assets and reinforce Japan's position as one of the world's most XRP-friendly markets. As institutional adoption grows and regulatory clarity strengthens, the expanding Ripple-SBI ecosystem is positioning Japan at the forefront of blockchain-based financial innovation.