Japanese conglomerate SBI Holdings wants to issue a new 10 billion yen security token bond that will offer investors XRP rewards. The three-year debt instrument, branded as SBI START Bonds, officially prices on March 10 and issues on March 24. It promises conventional fixed-income investors an indicative annual interest rate between 1.85% and 2.45%. To qualify for the cryptocurrency payouts, which are distributed annually through 2029, domestic investors must open and verify an account with SBI VC Trade, the firm’s cryptocurrency brokerage subsidiary, by May 11.
By mandating this crucial step, SBI implements a highly efficient customer-acquisition strategy. The firm uses a safe, regulated, yen-denominated corporate bond to funnel conservative retail money into its digital asset platform. Once these users enter the ecosystem, SBI can aggressively cross-sell them spot trading, staking, and margin services. Simultaneously, SBI Ripple Asia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Asia Web3 Alliance Japan (AWAJ).
The partners aim to establish a specialized venture studio model that provides hands-on technical and regulatory support to regional startups. In this initiative, the two companies will work together to provide technical support as ‘technical support partners’ to businesses aiming to implement financial services using blockchain. The initiative expressly requires these startups to build their financial services natively on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Unlike rival networks such as Ethereum or Solana, which boast organic developer momentum and robust smart contract activity, XRPL lacks a thriving decentralized finance ecosystem.
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