TL;DR
SBI Holdings and Startale Group join forces to create an onchain platform for tokenized stocks and real-world assets.
The venture will enable 24/7 global trading with lower fees and near-instant cross-border settlement.
The platform will also integrate decentralized finance protocols, offering fractional ownership and institutional-grade security for both retail and institutional investors.
Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings and blockchain infrastructure provider Startale Group have announced a strategic collaboration to launch a comprehensive onchain trading platform for tokenized stocks and real-world assets. This partnership aims to provide seamless access to global financial markets, allowing both retail and institutional investors to trade around the clock while enjoying lower transaction costs and enhanced operational efficiency.
Advanced Features For Global Accessibility
Institutional-grade security and compliance frameworks are at the core of the platform, enabling unrestricted access regardless of time zones or geography. Investors can take advantage of fractional ownership of high-value stocks, and near-instant cross-border settlement will simplify international trading. Additionally, advanced account abstraction will remove the need for manual wallet management, making the platform more intuitive and user-friendly for retail participants.
Beyond these features, the system will offer real-time compliance monitoring, ensuring strict regulatory alignment while providing enhanced liquidity, flexibility, and capital efficiency. Startale Group’s founder, Sota Watanabe, emphasized that onchain trading of tokenized stocks represents the next frontier of global financial markets, enabling programmable trading of US and Japanese equities without the usual limitations of traditional market hours.
Integration With DeFi And Financial Innovation
Beyond digitizing existing assets, the platform plans to support composable financial products that integrate tokenized stocks with decentralized finance protocols. This innovative approach combines the trust and familiarity of traditional equities with the flexibility and accessibility of DeFi, creating new financial primitives for investors worldwide. SBI Holdings and Startale also highlighted milestone-based committed funding to support platform development and rapid market expansion.
The joint venture will operate through two specialized companies: one focused on technology development and the other on brand and business strategy. Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO of SBI Holdings, pointed out that tokenized real-world assets could accelerate the convergence of traditional finance and DeFi, potentially transforming the capital markets themselves.
SBI Holdings, managing over 11 trillion JPY in assets with more than 65 million customers globally, has previously launched crypto ETFs and partnered with Ripple for RLUSD distribution in Japan. Startale Group, based in Singapore, has co-developed Sony’s Layer-2 blockchain Soneium and the Astar Network, with backing from major players including Sony, Samsung Next, and UOB Venture Management.