SBI forges three new blockchain partnerships with Circle, Ripple and Startale
Japan’s financial conglomerate SBI Group has announced three separate blockchain partnerships—teaming up with Circle, Ripple and Singapore-based Startale—to expand stablecoin services and build an onchain platform for tokenized stocks and real‑world assets.
In its arrangement with Circle, SBI says it will pursue a closer commercial relationship that supports USDC adoption in Japan, including a joint‑venture structure and related investments intended to accelerate USDC use cases across Web3 and digital finance. SBI’s crypto arm also completed the regulatory registration required to handle stablecoins and has already begun preparing retail USDC services.
Separately, SBI and Ripple have signed a memorandum of understanding to bring Ripple USD (RLUSD) to the Japanese market, with distribution planned to run through SBI VC Trade. Public reporting places the target rollout in early 2026 (first quarter), positioning RLUSD alongside other regulated dollar‑pegged stablecoins under Japan’s new stablecoin framework.
The Startale tie‑up will see SBI and the Singapore‑based infrastructure firm collaborate on an always‑on, onchain trading platform designed for tokenized equities and other real‑world assets (RWAs). The venture aims to offer 24/7 trading, faster settlement and fractionalization options, and it reportedly includes milestone‑based committed funding to take the project toward commercial launch.
SBI executives framed the moves as part of a broader push to bridge traditional finance and DeFi: the group sees tokenized RWAs and regulated stablecoins as drivers of liquidity, efficiency and new capital‑market models that could progressively digitalize exchanges and settlement rails. The partnerships combine SBI’s financial ecosystem and regulatory foothold with Circle’s, Ripple’s and Startale’s respective technology stacks and products.
Details on specific launch dates, technical architecture and network choices remain limited. Startale’s leadership has said technical specifics will be disclosed later, while SBI and its partners continue to align product timetables with regulatory and operational readiness.
Contextually, these moves follow Japan’s recent steps to create a clear licensing route for stablecoins and SBI VC Trade’s earlier completion of the electronic payment instruments registration needed to handle such tokens—actions that underpin the group’s ability to offer local distribution and retail services for foreign‑issued stablecoins.
