SBI Holdings, one of Japan’s largest financial conglomerates, is launching its first blockchain-based bond aimed at individual investors, a 10 billion yen (~$64.5 million) issue that combines the traditional features of fixed income with blockchain settlement and the benefits of crypto.
Called SBI START Bonds, the securities are managed entirely on-chain using BOOSTRY’s “ibet for Fin” platform, a specialist enterprise blockchain platform for issuing security tokens.
These three-year bonds offer an indicative annual interest rate of 1.85% to 2.45%, paid semi-annually.
XRP Rewards
Investors in these bonds can also receive rewards in the form of XRP tokens, according to SBI.
Resident retail investors and businesses who purchase more than 100,000 yen (approximately $650) and hold an account with SBI VC Trade are eligible to receive XRP rewards in an “amount corresponding to their subscription amount.”
These bonuses, which the product page details as 200 yen in XRP per 100,000 yen invested, must be distributed upon issuance and again on each interest payment date until 2029.
The bonds are expected to begin trading in the secondary market on March 25 via the Osaka Digital Exchange’s proprietary “START” trading system.
Notably, SBI Holdings formed a partnership with Ripple in 2016 and has been supporting XRP ever since. A subsidiary of the company even distributed XRP directly to shareholders and supported XRP-powered remittances between Japan and the Philippines.
The company, according to its chairman and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao, owns about 9% of Ripple Labs.
Kitao launched SBI Holdings in 1999 as a subsidiary of SoftBank (which later spun off as an independent company in 2006) and has since seen it grow into a financial giant, generating more than $8 billion in annual revenue. It became interested in blockchain technology through its partnership with Ripple, leading to the creation of SBI Ripple Asia.
The company has since adopted stablecoins. It partnered with Circle to launch USDC in Japan and signed a memorandum of understanding with Ripple to distribute its stablecoin RLUSD.
