Japan’s SBI and Rakuten Plan to Sell in-House Crypto Investment Trusts
SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities, two of Japan’s largest retail brokerages, plan to begin selling cryptocurrency investment trusts developed in-house, according to a Nikkei Asia report published May 16. The move would give Japanese retail investors pooled exposure to digital assets through familiar brokerage accounts, bypassing the need to hold cryptocurrency directly.
Nomura Securities and other major players in Japan’s securities industry are also examining similar products. The development marks a significant expansion of regulated cryptocurrency access in one of the world’s largest retail investment markets.
What SBI and Rakuten Are Planning
The Nikkei Asia report describes plans by SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities to create and distribute their own cryptocurrency investment trusts rather than reselling third-party products.
An investment trust in the Japanese market is a pooled fund structure that allows retail clients to buy units through standard brokerage accounts, with the fund manager handling custody and compliance.
By developing these products in-house, SBI and Rakuten would capture the fee revenue that currently flows to external managers and custodians. The structure also gives the brokerages direct control over which digital assets are included, how they are weighted, and how custody is managed, all critical questions in a market where Japanese regulators at the Financial Services Agency apply strict oversight to cryptocurrency intermediaries.
The report does not specify which assets would be included in the initial trust offerings. Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) are the most likely initial holdings given their regulatory status in Japan, where both have been classified as recognized cryptocurrencies for years.
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Background
Japan has maintained one of the more structured regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrency in any major economy.
The Financial Services Agency required cryptocurrency exchanges to register under the Payment Services Act beginning in 2017, following the Coincheck hack that year in which attackers stole approximately $530 million in NEM tokens. Subsequent rule changes tightened custody requirements, mandated segregation of customer assets, and imposed capital minimums.
The country’s major traditional financial institutions have moved cautiously into digital assets relative to their counterparts in the United States and Europe.
That caution is shifting. SBI Holdings, the parent of SBI Securities, has built one of Japan’s most diversified cryptocurrency businesses, including a stake in the SBI VC Trade exchange and investments in Ripple, the company behind XRP (XRP). Rakuten has run its own cryptocurrency exchange, Rakuten Wallet, since 2019.
The timing of the investment trust push follows sustained growth in U.S. spot cryptocurrency ETF markets.
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs accumulated more than $3 billion in net inflows over the two months to May 2026, a trajectory that Japanese brokerages and regulators have monitored closely as a template for domestic product development.
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What the Japan Crypto Trust Market Could Mean
Japan’s retail investor base is one of the deepest in Asia. Household financial assets in Japan exceeded 2,000 trillion yen, equivalent to roughly $13 trillion, as of late 2025, with a large share held in cash and low-yield savings instruments.
Investment trust products have historically served as the primary vehicle through which retail investors in Japan access equity and bond markets, meaning cryptocurrency trusts structured under the same framework could reach a large audience quickly.
For SBI Securities, which serves more than 13 million accounts, and Rakuten Securities, which counts more than 12 million accounts, even modest allocation from existing clients would represent billions of dollars in new cryptocurrency exposure channeled through regulated instruments.
The involvement of Nomura, Japan’s largest securities firm by assets, adds further weight to the trend. Nomura’s digital assets subsidiary, Laser Digital, has been active in institutional cryptocurrency markets since 2022, but a retail trust product would represent a new front.
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What to Watch
The key regulatory question is whether the Financial Services Agency will approve the in-house trust structure under existing rules or require new guidance.
Japan’s FSA has historically moved deliberately, and any product approval timeline will depend on whether the trusts are classified under the Payment Services Act, the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, or a new framework.
Investors watching the Japanese market should also note that yen-denominated inflows into cryptocurrency products would add a new demand source that operates independently of U.S. dollar-driven ETF flows. A material launch by SBI or Rakuten, particularly if Nomura follows, would represent one of the most significant expansions of retail cryptocurrency access in Asia since 2021.
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