On October 1, SBI Holdings completed the acquisition of Bitbank, making the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange fully owned by the company. The deal, valued at approximately ¥46.7 billion, closed after the buyout of shares held by MIXI and Ceres. Tomohiko Kondo, president of SBI VC Trade, joined the board of directors of Bitbank, while Bitbank's CEO, Noriyuki Hirosue, will take on the role of external director at SBI VC Trade. Bitbank emphasizes that the change of ownership will not affect its services, and customers will continue to use the exchange as before.
Negotiations began this year: in May, SBI announced it was considering the purchase, and in June, it signed agreements for the full acquisition. The process was phased. The structure SBICAH GK was to buy 53,704 shares of Bitbank from Hirosue and other shareholders, after which Bitbank issued 48,952 new shares in favor of SBI through a third-party issuance. Proceeds from the operation were used to buy back shares from MIXI and Ceres. The completion of the buyback on October 1 closed the remaining steps and made SBI Holdings the sole parent company of Bitbank.
Along with the change of ownership, Bitbank introduced a new management structure. Kondo has led SBI VC Trade since June 2023, and in June 2026, he became the representative director and president of SBI Crypto Asset Holdings. Hirosue remains the representative director, president, and CEO of Bitbank. Three external directors – Satoshi Takagi, Nobuhiro Kanayama, and Masaya Kubota – left the board. The new board of Bitbank consists of Hirosue, Naomichi Noda, Masaaki Kato, Masahiro Terada, Kondo, and three external directors working in the audit and supervisory committee. The company intends to leverage the financial capabilities, client network, and management resources of SBI Group to develop its business. Both companies will continue to operate within the same group while maintaining their own exchange operations.
Related articles
