Japan’s SBI Teams Up with Soneium Co-Developer to Launch Platform for Tokenized Stocks, RWAs

Japan’s banking giant SBI Holdings and Singapore-based blockchain developer Startale Group are forming a joint venture to build a trading platform for tokenized stocks and other real-world assets (RWA) amid growing interest in on-chain equities.

The platform, which has not yet been officially named and whose technical details remain under wraps, will offer fractionalized stock ownership, cross-border settlement, and integration with DeFi protocols, aiming to create “a tokenized world where all value can flow freely,” according to a press release shared with The Defiant.

“The whole financial market is moving from an offchain environment to onchain. We believe that the tokenized stock revolution is the largest opportunity, and onchain trading is the next frontier,” said Sota Watanabe, founder of Startale.

He noted that traditional exchanges remain closed roughly 70% of the time, while the planned platform will run continuously, supporting programmable equities with near-instant settlement.

Compliance-first Approach

In an interview with The Defiant, Watanabe emphasized that the platform is being designed to grant investors regulated ownership rights rather than synthetic exposure. “We’re building this platform with the intention that tokenized equities will confer actual, regulated ownership rights—always subject to the appropriate regulatory frameworks in each jurisdiction,” he said.

“This joint venture takes a compliance-first approach and incorporates institutional-grade custody, proper asset segregation, and comprehensive regulatory oversight from day one. We’re not cutting corners on making this institutionally sound.”

When asked about the possibility of a native token, Watanabe didn’t rule it out but suggested it isn’t a near-term priority. “It’s too early to discuss specific token economics or asset listings,” he said.

‘Structural Transformation’

For now, the joint venture is focused on laying the groundwork with compliant, institutional-grade infrastructure, while details on assets and potential token models would come later, after regulatory approvals are secured.

Yoshitaka Kitao, chief executive of SBI, said in the press release that the move reflects a “structural transformation” as real-world assets migrate on-chain. “As tokenized RWAs enable 24/7 real-time settlement and achieve unprecedented liquidity and capital efficiency, the convergence of traditional finance and DeFi will likely accelerate,” Kitao said.

SBI, long one of Japan’s most aggressive banks in digital finance, and Startale, known for its work on Sony’s blockchain network Soneium and the Astar Network, said they will disclose details of the platform’s technical architecture and rollout in the coming months.

Both are betting that their combined reach — SBI manages over 11 trillion yen ($75 billion) in assets and serves more than 65 million customers — can establish a new standard for round-the-clock on-chain equity trading.

Institutional Adoption

The venture comes as Wall Street and crypto markets converge on the idea that 2025 will mark the first wave of large-scale institutional adoption of digital assets.

In early July, Robinhood introduced 200 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, as well as perpetual futures, for eligible European customers, with plans to expand the list of stock tokens to 2,000 firms by the end of the year.

A few days later, OpenAI clarified that the so-called “OpenAI tokens” on Robinhood weren’t tied to its equity. Around the same time, Bybit and Kraken launched support for xStocks, offering tokenized U.S. shares, digital tokens backed 1:1 by real stocks.

Decentralized crypto exchange Jupiter went further, launching tokenized pre-IPO shares in partnership with PreStocks. As The Defiant reported, the tokens give holders only indirect economic exposure to private companies like SpaceX and OpenAI, but don’t confer actual ownership, voting rights, or dividends.