Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings and the Solana Foundation have entered into a strategic partnership to build an on-chain financial market originating from Japan, aiming to export Japanese stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to Asian and global markets. As part of the agreement, the Solana Foundation will acquire a stake in SBI R3 Japan—a joint venture currently backed by SBI Holdings and SMBC Group. Following the transaction, the venture is planned to be renamed SBI Solana Global (tentative) to spearhead the new growth initiative. The partnership comes amid a rapid global expansion of the tokenized asset market, where the issuance, trading, and settlement of financial instruments are increasingly moving natively to blockchain networks—a paradigm known as on-chain finance.
The partnership builds upon SBI's earlier launch of the world's first tokenized Japanese equity fund on the Solana blockchain through a partnership with DigiFT. The company introduced the SBI Japan High Dividend Equity Strategy Token (JX token) in collaboration with DigiFT, a regulated digital asset exchange for institutional-grade real-world assets. The token provides accredited and institutional investors with blockchain-based access to a Japanese high-dividend equity strategy managed by SBI Asset Management Co. This marks the first time a Japanese asset manager's listed-equity strategy is brought on-chain through DigiFT's regulated tokenization and distribution infrastructure, bridging traditional Japanese equities with blockchain technology as global investor attention returns to Japanese equities.
The newly rebranded SBI Solana Global will focus on driving end-to-end issuance, distribution, and settlement services on the Solana network across five primary verticals. Built on the Solana blockchain through DigiFT's tokenization infrastructure, the JX token expands SBI's digital asset offerings beyond stablecoins and payments. The product combines traditional Japanese equities with blockchain-based ownership while allowing investors to access institutional-grade assets on-chain. The token supports settlements in USDC, while DigiFT indicated that integration with a Japanese yen stablecoin is planned for a later stage. According to Henry Zhang, founder and Group CEO of DigiFT, the launch extends DigiFT's mission to bring real, institutional-grade assets on-chain through infrastructure that investors and asset managers can actually trust.
The JX token is structured around the underlying strategy managed by SBI Asset Management Co., utilizing an authorized, manager-referenced model that is critical for regulatory compliance. In a joint staff statement issued January 28, 2026, the U.S. SEC staff drew a formal line between issuer-sponsored tokenized securities, which can represent true ownership, and third-party products that typically offer only synthetic exposure or custodial entitlements. The JX token is available exclusively to accredited and institutional investors as defined under Singapore's Securities and Futures Act, with the underlying SBI Japan High Dividend Equity strategy already holding more than ¥200 billion in assets, or roughly $1.23 billion. The strategy is growth-type, meaning there are no distributions at either the fund or token level, with investors betting on capital appreciation from Japanese equities rather than collecting periodic dividend payouts.
The partnership leverages Solana's reputation for high transaction speeds, ultra-low costs, and extensive global ecosystem to bridge Japan's vast pool of financial assets with international liquidity. The alliance seeks to position Japan as the premier on-chain financial hub in Asia by linking domestic financial instruments with Solana's high-throughput global network. The launch comes as SBI continues expanding its blockchain business alongside existing Ripple partnerships and its upcoming 3% JPYSC stablecoin lending product. SBI and Ripple maintain a deep partnership since 2016, including joint ventures such as SBI Ripple Asia and recent collaborations on stablecoins such as RLUSD. SBI previously selected Ripple to support RLUSD stablecoin distribution in Japan as part of its multi-stablecoin strategy, with Solana now anchoring the tokenized RWA and institutional settlement layers.
