SBI Pairs with Ondo To Bring Tokenized Japanese Stocks Onchain

Japanese stocks onchain

SBI Holdings announced the partnership in a 14 Jul press release, with Ondo confirming the tie-up on its own blog two days later. Ondo, which describes itself as the largest tokenizer of stocks globally, said the deal would bring Japanese equities onchain, distribute its tokenized products across SBI's ecosystem of "millions of investors across Japan," and adopt the Japanese firm's yen-pegged JPYSC stablecoin for onchain settlement and collateral. Neither company has disclosed a launch date, the first assets to be tokenized, or the regulatory framework that will govern investor access.

Tokenization converts physical shares of a company into a digital token that lives on a blockchain. Ondo's tokenized US stocks include Nvidia and Tesla, alongside tokenized exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking the S&P 500 index.

Connecting Tokyo

Ondo puts its tokenized stocks and ETFs at $1.02bn in total value locked (TVL), the number of assets deposited in a protocol, used as a measure of its scale. Ian De Bode, chief executive of Ondo, said the collaboration "creates a path to bring Japanese assets onchain and to connect Japan with the global tokenized economy."

For Tokyo-based SBI Holdings, a financial services conglomerate spanning banking, asset management and digital assets, the Ondo alliance adds to its expanding footprint in a country modernizing its financial system.

Japan's stock market ranks third globally by market capitalization at $6.5tn, behind the US ($52.6tn) and China ($11.5tn).

Digital assets corridor

"We believe Ondo will be a key strategic partner as SBI Group forms a global corridor for digital assets, and we look forward to rapidly advancing a wide range of initiatives together," said Yoshitaka Kitao, representative director, chair, president and chief executive of SBI Holdings, in a 14 Jul statement.

The deal sits within Japan's wider push to modernize its capital markets, moving from one-off digital-securities pilots toward full onchain market infrastructure integrated with major domestic institutions. The use of a regulated yen stablecoin also offers diversification from the dollar-centric settlement that dominates onchain finance.

Expanding SBI alliances

SBI has established an alliance with Startale Group, combining Startale's blockchain engineering with SBI's financial infrastructure to build a regulated, 24/7 onchain capital-market system in Japan. The two companies co-developed and launched JPYSC, Japan's first trust-bank-backed, yen-pegged stablecoin.

SBI Holdings, which has more than $250bn in total assets, has moved aggressively to expand its crypto footprint. In June, its SBI VC Trade arm listed Ripple's RLUSD dollar stablecoin and began offering JPYSC, becoming the first platform to open both lanes of Japan's revised Payment Services Act stablecoin framework on the same day.

Last month, SBI announced it would acquire Bitbank, operator of one of Japan's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in a deal Nikkei reported at ¥46.7bn (about $290mn) that would give the combined group the largest crypto custody position in Japan by assets under management.

Two out of three markets

For Ondo, tokenizing Japanese equities gives it exposure to two of the world's three largest equity markets, with China inaccessible due to capital controls and restrictions on cryptocurrency trading. The Japan tie-up extends its tokenization model from US- and euro-centric markets into a major Asian equity hub.

Adding a non-dollar settlement currency could also help Ondo build multi-currency onchain capital-markets infrastructure, aligning with its strategy of expanding into large, regulated markets.

The partnership has the potential to place Japan's equity market onto global tokenization rails, but it must navigate an evolving legal and regulatory environment – cross-border legal uncertainty, the governance of yen-denominated stablecoins, and integration with existing exchanges could all be barriers.