The Report
SBI VC Trade, the crypto arm of Japanese financial group SBI Holdings, reported on July 7, 2026 that its registered accounts across the VCTRADE and BITPOINT services have surpassed 2 million — roughly double the 1 million it counted in 2025. The milestone follows SBI VC Trade's April 2026 merger with sister firm BitPoint Japan.
More significantly, SBI VC Trade disclosed that corporate use of its SBIVC for Prime institutional service has been growing. According to the firm, a weak yen is pushing Japanese companies to diversify their treasury reserves beyond cash, with some adding Bitcoin and XRP to their balance sheets. Others are distributing Bitcoin or XRP to shareholders through perk programs.
Why XRP Specifically
XRP's specific appeal in the Japanese corporate treasury context is multi-layered. Japan has long been one of XRP's strongest market communities — XRP has historically maintained a large retail following in Japan and trades at high volumes on regulated Japanese exchanges. SBI Holdings itself has been a known XRP holder and Ripple partner.
Beyond the legacy relationship, XRP offers Japanese corporates a hedge with a different profile than gold or USD-denominated assets. As the yen weakens against the dollar, holding XRP provides exposure to a dollar-priced digital asset without direct USD cash holdings — which carry their own FX management requirements.
The RLUSD stablecoin dimension adds another layer. SBI VC Trade listed RLUSD in June 2026 — described at the time as the first dollar-backed stablecoin listing in Japan — alongside JPYSC, a yen-pegged stablecoin. Companies can now use the same platform to hold XRP and manage stablecoin liquidity for cross-border settlement.
The Yen Catalyst
The USD/JPY pair has been a consistent macro stressor for Japanese balance sheets. With the yen persistently weak, Japanese companies holding yen-denominated cash see real purchasing power erosion against USD-priced inputs, international travel, and import costs. Crypto assets — particularly those with dollar-price anchors — offer a partial hedge that doesn't require formal FX derivatives or currency swap agreements.
This dynamic has been playing out with increasing frequency. The same weak yen pressure that pushed Japan's institutional investors toward U.S. equities and real assets in prior decades is now extending to digital assets as regulatory clarity improves and licensed exchanges like SBI VC Trade offer compliant access.
For deeper context on the yen-crypto dynamic, see CoinDesk's July 7, 2026 live markets coverage: "Bitcoin drops as yen, Iran ceasefire collapse" — illustrating how yen movements and macro events are tightly coupled to XRP price action across the digital rail stack.
What This Means for the Ecosystem
Corporate treasury adoption is structurally different from retail or institutional fund exposure. A company holding XRP on its balance sheet requires audited custody, accounting treatment, and ongoing regulatory compliance — infrastructure that exchanges like SBI VC Trade provide. As more Japanese firms go through that onboarding process, it creates sticky, long-term demand rather than speculative trading flow.
The RLUSD addition through SBI VC Trade is also notable for the XRPL ecosystem. RLUSD is Ripple's dollar-backed stablecoin native to the XRP Ledger. Its live listing in Japan means Japanese corporates now have access to a Ledger-native dollar instrument — useful for cross-border settlement that routes through XRPL's payment infrastructure. For analysis of where XRPL's institutional adoption stands in the broader context, see our coverage: XRPL RWA Market Hits $4B — Institutional Buildout Accelerates.