SBI buys 20% stake in Indonesia's Ajaib for $270 million to expand yen stablecoin in Southeast Asia
SBI has acquired a 20% stake in the Indonesian brokerage firm Ajaib for $270 million to expand its yen-denominated stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure in Southeast Asia. This move is part of a broader strategy to build a regional network for digital assets and cross-border payments.
Why it matters
The deal represents a significant push by a major Japanese financial institution into the emerging Southeast Asian crypto market, signaling institutional confidence in tokenized assets.
The deal is part of SBI's push to expand JPYSC, its yen-denominated stablecoin, across Southeast Asia and build cross-border settlement infrastructure using blockchain technology.
Ajaib gives SBI a foothold in Indonesia, a consumer-retail market worth an estimated $375 billion, according to IMARC Group , and one of ASEAN’s largest retail-investing markets, with more than 20 million retail investors, according to The Straits Times . Ajaib operates online brokerage services, foreign-exchange margin trading, cryptocurrencies and asset management in Indonesia.
“In this era of tokenization, the importance of global infrastructure for digital assets is greater than ever,” stated Yoshitaka Kitao, chairman and president of SBI.
The investment follows SBI's acquisition of Coinhako Group , a Singapore-based crypto exchange, for roughly $100 million in July, and a separate investment in DigiFT, a Singaporean digital securities trading platform, where the two established a joint venture.
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