SBI Pays 8x Revenue for a Losing Exchange - That's the Point

SBI Holdings just dropped $289 million on an exchange that lost money last year — and that’s exactly why they bought it.

Architect Partners calls Bitbank a bet on regulated scale, not earnings. The deal doubles SBI’s crypto assets under custody to roughly 1.1 trillion yen (~$6.8B) and adds nearly a million customer accounts, bringing the combined platform to 2.9 million accounts.

90% of Japan’s Licensed Exchanges Are Bleeding Money

Architect Partners crunched the numbers: roughly 90% of Japan’s 27 licensed exchanges are unprofitable. Even Bitbank, one of the largest, reported an operating loss as revenue dropped 27% in fiscal 2025. SBI paid about eight times revenue — close to the 9.7x multiple Coinbase paid for Deribit.

That valuation only makes sense as a purchase of a regulated market position. Japan’s lower house passed legislation on June 11 that shifts crypto under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, aligning it with securities law. The new regime imposes stiffer capital, custody, and disclosure requirements while cutting the crypto tax rate to a flat 20% and paving the way for spot bitcoin, ether, and XRP ETFs.

What $289M Buys: A Regulated License, Altcoin Liquidity, and a Trust Business

SBI gets a Financial Services Agency–licensed exchange, one of the deepest altcoin liquidity pools in Japan, and an institutional custody arm called Japan Digital Asset Trust. Building those capabilities from scratch would take years and cost more.

The acquisition is the latest in SBI’s consolidation playbook. SBI VC Trade absorbed TaoTao in 2020, DMM Bitcoin’s customer accounts and custody assets in 2024, and Bitpoint Japan earlier this year. Bitbank is the biggest piece yet — and Architect Partners partner Steve Payne expects more: “With the field set to thin, bitFlyer, the last large independent and already private-equity owned, is an obvious next domino.”

Japan’s New Crypto Law Accelerates the Shakeout

Architect Partners estimates as many as half of Japan’s 27 registered exchanges may ultimately disappear. Higher compliance costs will crush small players that can’t spread fixed expenses across a large user base.

SBI is building an integrated platform that spans trading, custody, tokenization, stablecoins, and payments. Alongside the Bitbank deal, SBI unveiled distribution of Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin in Japan, a Visa-branded crypto rewards card, and a stablecoin payments initiative. The message is clear: SBI intends to own the regulated stack from custody to checkout.

With bitFlyer next on the chopping block, expect another Japanese exchange to vanish before year-end.

Source: SBI's $289 million Bitbank deal is symptomatic of Japan's crypto consolidation: Architect Partners
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