SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities are building cryptocurrency investment products in-house, a shift made possible by landmark regulatory changes that treat digital assets as financial instruments for the first time.

The two firms are each developing cryptocurrency investment trusts independently, according to a May 17 report from Nikkei Asia. The Nikkei Asia report cited internal company plans without attributed executive statements. SBI will sell products built by group affiliate SBI Global Asset Management, covering both exchange-traded funds and investment trusts focused on Bitcoin and Ethereum. Rakuten Securities is partnering with Rakuten Investment Management on funds designed to be traded directly through smartphone apps. Both firms aim to let customers buy in through existing brokerage accounts, removing the need to open a separate crypto exchange account or manage digital wallets.

The two firms are not moving alone. Nikkei Asia reported that 11 of Japan's 18 major brokerages are considering entering the market once final rules are set. That list includes Nomura Securities, Daiwa Securities, SMBC Nikko Securities, Mizuho Securities, and Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

The Regulatory Shift Behind the Move

The immediate trigger for this activity is a cabinet-approved bill from April 10, 2026, which reclassifies crypto assets under Japan's Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA). The FIEA governs stocks and bonds; until now, crypto sat under the Payment Services Act, which treats digital assets as a form of payment rather than an investment product. The practical consequences of the switch are significant: insider trading bans now apply to crypto markets, token issuers face mandatory annual disclosure requirements, and penalties for operating without registration rise from three years and 3 million yen to ten years and 10 million yen. Around 105 tokens listed on licensed Japanese platforms are affected.

The reclassification also carries structural changes for the industry: exchange operators will be renamed "crypto asset trading operators," and the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) gains expanded enforcement powers. Importantly, NFTs and certain stablecoins remain under the existing Payment Services Act regime and fall outside the scope of the FIEA reclassification, a carve-out that crypto-specialist businesses will need to account for.

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama described the bill's goal as aiming to "expand the supply of growth capital in response to changes in financial and capital markets, and ensure fairness and transparency in the market and investor protection."

The bill still needs to pass the National Diet before it takes effect, with implementation targeted for fiscal year 2027 (from April 2027). Japan's Financial Services Agency plans a separate revision to the Investment Trust Act by 2028 to formally add crypto assets to the list of permitted investment trust holdings.

Tax Reform Adds Fuel

Alongside the FIEA reclassification, a companion tax proposal would cut the maximum capital gains tax on crypto from a progressive rate that can reach 55% down to a flat 20%, the same rate applied to stocks and bonds. A three-year loss carryforward provision is also on the table. Together, the two measures address two long-standing structural barriers that have kept institutional and larger retail money out of Japan's crypto market, despite the country having roughly 11.8 million registered crypto accounts as of end-2024.

Bitcoin was trading at approximately $80,596 as of May 15, with a market cap near $1.33 trillion. Ethereum stood at roughly $2,257. Bitcoin and Ethereum together account for more than 60% of daily crypto trading volume in Japan, which explains why both brokerages are focusing initial product development on those two assets.

SBI's Wider Expansion Play

For SBI, the investment trust announcement is one piece of a broader consolidation strategy. In April 2026, the group merged BitPoint Japan into its existing exchange SBI VC Trade. In May, SBI submitted a letter of intent to acquire a stake in Bitbank, one of Japan's largest crypto exchanges, which would give it control over three major exchanges under one corporate umbrella. SBI has also disclosed plans to take a majority stake in Coinhako, a Monetary Authority of Singapore-regulated exchange in Singapore.

What This Means Beyond Japan

Japan's framework carries weight across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. The US approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024, and those products accumulated more than $10 billion in assets within six months. Hong Kong and Australia now list crypto ETFs as well. An unnamed BlackRock executive noted in February 2026 that even a 1% crypto allocation in Asia could unlock $2 trillion in new capital flows.

For investors in South Asia, the contrast with India is pointed. India currently imposes a 30% capital gains tax on crypto plus a 1% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) levy on every trade, a structure that has pushed significant domestic volume to offshore, unregistered platforms. Japan's combination of a lower flat tax, mandatory investor protections, and mainstream brokerage distribution offers a working counterargument to the idea that strict oversight and investor-friendly conditions cannot coexist.

African regulators in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa are all in the process of building their own crypto frameworks, and Japan's FSA model is directly relevant to the classification questions they are still working through. The FIEA approach of integrating crypto under financial instruments law rather than payments law addresses precisely the kind of regulatory design choices those countries have yet to resolve.

What Comes Next

The FIEA bill's Diet vote and the FSA's 2028 Investment Trust Act revision are the two regulatory milestones to watch. Until both are finalized, the specific product structures SBI and Rakuten are building could still be shaped by the rules that emerge. Even so, the direction is clear: Japan's financial establishment is treating the crypto market as a durable asset class, and the institutional infrastructure to serve it is being built now.