Japan’s Financial Group SBI Holdings Announces Strategic Investment in Circle Internet Group
Japan’s financial group SBI Holdings and SBI Shinsei Bank announced on Monday a strategic investment in Circle Internet Group, the issuer of the second largest stablecoin USDC, coinciding with the company’s listing. The total investment amount is $50 million, with SBI Holdings and SBI Shinsei Bank each contributing $25 million.
Circle (stock code CRCL) went public on the New York Stock Exchange on June 5, opening at $69, higher than its initial offering price of $31. Its closing price on the first day was $83, with a peak increase of over 200%. SBI Holdings stated that this is the largest fintech IPO since Coinbase went public on Nasdaq in 2021, and that SBI Group successfully secured one of the largest allocations of Circle’s shares amid strong demand from various institutional investors.
SBI Holdings wrote in a press release:
SBI Holdings also reviewed its positioning in the cryptocurrency field, including its investment in international remittance technology company Ripple Labs (issuer of the XRP token) in 2016, currently holding about 9% of the shares and becoming its largest external shareholder. In addition, SBI Group has also participated in the development of the private blockchain platform Corda and invested in the asset tokenization platform Securitize.
SBI Holdings indicated that dollar stablecoins have increasingly been seen as a high-speed international remittance method in recent years, and the SBI Group views this area as a highly promising opportunity. Therefore, under the expectation of regulatory easing in Japan, they are actively promoting cooperation with Circle. The company noted that since signing a comprehensive business alliance agreement in November 2023, both parties have been deepening their collaboration to jointly promote the circulation of USDC in Japan and the development of new application scenarios, including the establishment of the joint venture Circle SBI Japan KK in March this year.
Related report: “Circle Expands into the Japanese Market, SBI Holdings’ Exchange to List USDC Stablecoin”
Following the strategic investment in Circle, SBI Holdings and SBI Shinsei Bank will further explore cooperation opportunities with Circle to accelerate the advancement of their joint projects and are committed to creating a platform that can widely integrate USDC into Japan’s existing financial ecosystem.