SBI Holdings, one of Japan’s largest financial conglomerates, is launching its first blockchain-based bond aimed at individual investors, a 10 billion yen (~$64.5 million) issuance that combines traditional fixed-income features with blockchain settlement and crypto perks.<\/p>\n
Called the SBI START Bonds, the securities are fully managed onchain using the \u201cibet for Fin<\/a>\u201d platform from BOOSTRY, a specialized enterprise blockchain platform for security token issuance. <\/p>\n These three-year bonds offer<\/a> an indicative annual interest rate of 1.85% to 2.45%, paid semiannually. <\/p>\n XRP Rewards<\/p>\n The investors in these bonds can also receive rewards in XRP tokens, according to SBI. <\/p>\n Resident retail investors and companies that purchase more than 100,000 yen (around $650) worth and hold an account with SBI VC Trade are eligible to receive rewards in XRP in “an amount corresponding to their subscription amount.\u201d<\/p>\n These bonuses, which the product<\/a> page details as 200 yen in XRP per 100,000 invested yen, are to be distributed at issuance and again on each interest payment date through 2029.<\/p>\n The bonds are expected to begin secondary trading on March 25 via the Osaka Digital Exchange\u2019s \u201cSTART\u201d proprietary trading system.<\/p>\n SBI Holdings notably formed a partnership<\/a> with Ripple back in 2016, and has since then been a supporter of XRP. A subsidiary of the company has even distributed XRP directly to shareholders<\/a> and supported<\/a> XRP-powered remittances between Japan and the Philippines.<\/p>\n The company, according to its Chairman and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao, owns<\/a> roughly 9% of Ripple Labs.<\/p>\n Kitao launched SBI Holdings in 1999 as a SoftBank subsidiary (which later separated into an independent firm in 2006) and has since seen it grow into a financial giant, generating over $8 billion in annual revenue. It first started dealing with blockchain technology through its partnership with Ripple, leading to the creation of SBI Ripple Asia.<\/p>\n