A weak yen is pushing Japanese firms into Bitcoin and XRP

Japanese companies are quietly reshaping how they manage corporate cash. With the yen continuing to slide, more firms are turning to $BTC and $XRP as an alternative store of value, according to SBI VC Trade, the crypto arm of Tokyo-based financial group SBI Holdings.

The company said use of its corporate service, SBIVC for Prime, has grown as the weak yen drives firms to spread reserves beyond cash, with added demand from companies that hand out Bitcoin or $XRP through shareholder-perk programs. In other words, some Japanese businesses are not just holding crypto on the balance sheet, they are distributing it directly to investors as a form of shareholder reward.

Account milestone masks the full picture

SBI VC Trade said registered accounts across its VCTRADE and BITPOINT services have surpassed 2 million, roughly doubling since 2025 and aided by its April 2026 merger with BitPoint Japan. That headline figure deserves some context. The 2 million figure combines its VCTRADE and BITPOINT services and follows SBI VC Trade's April 2026 merger with sister firm BitPoint Japan. The company plans to fully integrate the two brands around the end of December, which it said should cut costs and unify service levels. So a meaningful portion of the account growth reflects consolidation rather than purely organic demand.

The milestone tracks a broader pickup in regulated crypto access in Japan, where a strict licensing regime has kept the market smaller than in the US or South Korea, but is steadily drawing retail and corporate users as stablecoins and treasury strategies take hold.

Stablecoins add another layer

Corporate treasury adoption is not the only growth driver. SBI VC Trade listed USDC in March 2025 in what it called Japan's first dollar-stablecoin listing, and in June 2026 added Ripple's dollar-backed RLUSD alongside JPYSC, a yen-pegged token it described as the country's first trust-based yen stablecoin, and began offering lending against stablecoins.

SBI's ambitions extend well beyond the current account count. SBI's planned acquisition of Bitbank, announced in June 2026, is projected to add approximately 960,000 accounts, which would bring the combined total to around 2.92 million. That would place it ahead of domestic rivals bitFlyer and Coincheck and cement its position as Japan's largest regulated crypto operator.

The broader trend points to a structural shift in how Japanese corporates view digital assets: less as a speculative trade and more as a practical tool for treasury management and shareholder engagement in an environment of persistent yen weakness.

Sources:
CoinDesk: Bitcoin, XRP draw Japanese firms as weak yen drives treasury diversification
Genfinity: SBI acquires Bitbank, cementing Japan's largest regulated crypto operator