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Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Group, which holds more than $200 billion in total assets, has announced a strategic partnership with blockchain oracle provider Chainlink to accelerate institutional digital asset adoption in Japan and across global markets.
The collaboration is focused on tokenised real-world assets, tokenised funds, and regulated stablecoins. Japan’s financial system and growing digital asset sector are being positioned as the first proving ground for the partnership’s use cases.
According to a survey conducted by SBI Digital Asset Holdings, the digital asset subsidiary of SBI, more than 50 financial institutions reported rising demand for digital assets during the past 12 months. The survey found that 76% of respondents plan to invest in tokenised securities to take advantage of lower costs and faster settlement times. A lack of institutional-grade market infrastructure, however, was cited as the primary barrier to adoption.
The partnership will utilise Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to enable cross-chain tokenised assets such as real estate and bonds. Chainlink’s SmartData and CCIP will also be deployed to bring net asset value data onchain for tokenised funds. Additional use cases will include facilitating payment-versus-payment for foreign exchange and cross-border transactions, alongside Proof of Reserve services to verify the backing of stablecoins.
"It has been great working with the SBI team, they are one of the most forward-looking and technically advanced groups in the blockchain industry. We have been building very advanced fund tokenization and stablecoin DvP use cases with SBI for a while now, and I am excited to see our great work move towards a state of production usage at a large scale. SBI's choice to rely on the Chainlink standard for their digital asset transactions shows that the security/reliability, compliance features, and cross-border connectivity of Chainlink are what is needed to do high-value institutional transactions." — Sergey Nazarov, Co-Founder, Chainlink
"Chainlink is a natural partner for SBI complementing our financial footprint with their market leading interoperability and reliability onchain. With our combined strengths, we are delighted to be working together on developing groundbreaking, secure, compliance-focused solutions, including powering compliant cross-border transactions using stablecoins, that accelerate the widespread adoption of digital assets in Japan and the region." — Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President & CEO of SBI Holdings
SBI and Chainlink have collaborated previously. Alongside UBS Asset Management, the companies participated in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian, trialling automated fund administration and transfer agency using smart contracts.
Chainlink is a blockchain oracle platform providing interoperability, compliance, and privacy standards for decentralised finance and institutional blockchain use cases. Its infrastructure secures the majority of the DeFi market and has processed tens of trillions of dollars in transaction value. Institutions including Swift, Euroclear, Mastercard, Fidelity International, and UBS are among those using Chainlink’s services.
SBI Group is headquartered in Japan and operates businesses spanning financial services, asset management, investment, crypto assets, and next-generation ventures. The group has been active in blockchain and Web3 initiatives, with stakes in companies such as Ripple, Digital Asset, R3, and Sygnum Bank.
