The initiative will begin in Japan and expand to the wider Asia-Pacific region, focusing on tokenizing bonds, enabling cross-chain transactions, and providing on-chain verification for stablecoin reserves. This partnership also follows SBI’s rapid-fire collaborations with Circle, Ripple, and Startale. Meanwhile, Japan’s Metaplanet, which is the country’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, was promoted from small-cap to mid-cap status in FTSE Russell’s index review, securing inclusion in the FTSE All-World Index. The company holds nearly 19,000 BTC in its treasury and plans to accumulate 210,000 BTC by 2027.
SBI Group Partners with Chainlink
Japanese financial giant SBI Group expanded its push into digital assets through a new partnership with blockchain oracle provider Chainlink, to create tools for financial institutions across Asia. The collaboration was announced on Sunday, and will initially focus on the Japanese market before extending to the wider Asia-Pacific region.
According to SBI, the deal will target several key use cases, including tokenizing real-world assets like bonds, enabling cross-blockchain transactions, and providing on-chain verification for stablecoin reserves.
This latest move is part of SBI’s aggressive embrace of blockchain technology, and came just days after the conglomerate revealed separate partnerships with Circle, Ripple, and Web3 infrastructure firm Startale. The four announcements in quick succession prove that the company is more than ready to establish itself as a leading force in Asia’s growing tokenized finance sector.
SBI said its work with Chainlink will take advantage of the latter’s interoperability protocol to support functions like foreign exchange settlement and cross-border payments. The companies also plan to use Chainlink’s data feed technology to bring net asset value data for tokenized funds on-chain, which could enhance transparency for investors and streamline fund management. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov said that the partnership builds on years of collaboration with SBI in areas like stablecoin settlements and fund tokenization, and added that the initiative is moving toward production-level implementation at scale.
SBI Holdings CEO Yoshitaka Kitao described the deal as a way to support compliant cross-border stablecoin transactions, with the broader goal of accelerating digital asset adoption both in Japan and across Asia. This coincides with growing regulatory momentum in Japan, where the Financial Services Agency is reportedly preparing to approve the country’s first yen-denominated stablecoin as early as next month.
The strategy also ties in with SBI’s agreements with Circle and Ripple. Its crypto subsidiary SBI VC Trade plans to launch Ripple’s Ripple USD stablecoin by March of 2026, while also promoting Circle’s USDC in Japan. Additionally, its partnership with Startale will produce a new on-chain platform for trading tokenized stocks and assets around the clock, very similar to platforms operated by Kraken and Robinhood.
Metaplanet Added to FTSE All-World Index
In other crypto-related news out of Asia, Japan's largest Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet was upgraded from a small-cap to a mid-cap stock in FTSE Russell’s September 2025 Semi-Annual Review, securing its inclusion in the FTSE Japan Index. The promotion happened after the company’s strong second-quarter performance and means it will now also join the FTSE All-World Index, which tracks the biggest publicly listed companies across regions. The inclusion is expected to channel more capital into Bitcoin from traditional financial markets, giving passive stock investors indirect exposure to the cryptocurrency through their index holdings.
The company’s impressive rise is turning heads as it continues to outperform some of Japan’s most established corporations. According to its Q2 financial report, Metaplanet posted year-to-date gains of nearly 187% by August. This was far above the 7.2% rise of the TOPIX Core 30 Index, which tracks blue-chip companies like Toyota, Sony, and Nintendo.
Currently, Metaplanet holds 18,991 BTC in its corporate treasury, making it the seventh-largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder worldwide. That puts it ahead of well-known companies like Coinbase, Tesla, and Hut 8.
Top public Bitcoin treasury companies (Source: BitcoinTreasuries.NET)
It was originally operating as a hotel business, but Metaplanet pivoted in 2024 to become a dedicated Bitcoin treasury company. The rebrand was accompanied by an ambitious long-term strategy to accumulate 210,000 BTC by 2027, which is 1% of Bitcoin’s fixed supply.
In July, CEO Simon Gerovich suggested that part of the company’s Bitcoin reserves could be deployed toward acquiring more income-generating businesses, including the potential purchase of a digital bank or ventures adjacent to the digital asset sector.
The recognition by FTSE Russell sheds some light on Metaplanet’s transformation from a niche hotel operator into a major player in both Japan’s equity markets and the global Bitcoin ecosystem. Its rapid ascent also proves that there is a growing integration of Bitcoin into mainstream financial products.
