SBI Group has announced that it entered a strategic partnership with Chainlink to drive institutional adoption of blockchain-based solutions in global markets, starting with Japan. The collaboration combines SBI’s financial expertise and Chainlink’s infrastructure, which supports data reliability and blockchain interoperability.
The companies said the initiative will focus on several use cases, including tokenized real-world assets, tokenized funds, and regulated stablecoins. SBI noted that Japan’s financial market provides a suitable environment for testing and scaling digital asset solutions. Recent data from SBI Digital Asset Holdings indicated that 76 percent of over 50 surveyed financial institutions planned to invest in tokenized securities, though many cited the absence of institutional-grade infrastructure as the main barrier to adoption.
Initial developments will center on cross-chain tokenized assets such as real estate and bonds, powered by Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol. The protocol enables secure and compliant transfers across multiple blockchains. Plans also include integrating Chainlink SmartData to bring net asset value data onchain for tokenized funds, improving liquidity and operational efficiency. The companies also plan to enable payment versus payment for foreign exchange and cross-border transactions and to use Chainlink Proof of Reserve for transparent verification of stablecoin reserves.
Sergey Nazarov, Co-Founder of Chainlink, commented, “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.”
Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President and CEO of SBI Holdings, commented, “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.”
This collaboration follows previous joint efforts between the companies. Chainlink, UBS Asset Management, and SBI Digital Markets, a subsidiary of SBI in Singapore, recently partnered on a project under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian initiative to automate fund administration and transfer agency using smart contracts.
