SBI Holdings, a Japanese financial conglomerate born from the investment arm of SoftBank in the last century, laid its earliest blockchain cornerstone in 2016 by partnering with Ripple. This collaboration marked the group's formal entry into crypto payments and distributed ledger technology, long before the current Web3 wave swept the nation. As a traditional finance heavyweight, SBI leveraged the Ripple partnership to build cross-border payment infrastructure, gaining a first-mover advantage that later positioned it as the "vanguard" of Japan's Web3 ecosystem. Over the years, SBI has expanded into crypto exchanges, mining, and DeFi, but its 2016 alliance with Ripple remains the pivotal starting point of its blockchain journey. The move exemplifies how legacy financial institutions can pivot to embrace decentralized finance while maintaining regulatory compliance in Japan.
