A consortium led by SBI Holdings will launch in 2026 a 24/7 trading platform for tokenized stocks, marking an operational shift aimed at accelerating settlement and broadening accessibility. The move targets retail investors, corporate treasuries and institutional custodians, and is paired with initiatives for digital currency and tokenized deposits to mobilize dormant reserves and reduce settlement timelines.
SBI Holdings, with more than ¥11 trillion (about $74 billion) under management, has formed a joint venture with Startale Group to create a continuous market for tokenized equities and real assets, with a planned start in 2026, according to cited reports. The model will allow fractional ownership with very low minimum purchase amounts, potentially attracting a new segment of retail savers.
Sota Watanabe, founder of Startale, noted: “The whole financial market is moving from an offchain environment to onchain” and described the intention to create “entirely new financial primitives that merge the trust of traditional equities with the composability and accessibility of DeFi.”
In parallel, Japan Post Bank is preparing the launch of a digital currency, DCJPY, and the tokenization of deposits; the entity holds around ¥190 trillion (approx. $1.3 trillion) in deposits and 120 million customers, so authorities expect the initiative to free liquidity currently immobilized in savings accounts, according to reports.
SBI has also announced strategic partnerships with oracle and custody providers, and its subsidiary SBI Shinsei Bank is exploring multicurrency tokenized deposits in collaboration with DeCurret and Partior. Tokenization is the digital representation of a real-world asset on a blockchain to enable fractional ownership and programmable settlement.
The project signals Japan’s push to merge traditional finance with on-chain infrastructure, with expectations that continuous markets and programmable assets could catalyze new forms of liquidity and collateral usage.
Implications for Japan´s market
The combination of a 24/7 market and tokenized currencies could drastically reduce settlement timelines (today typically T+2/T+3), increase the availability of assets as collateral, and create new liquidity pathways for treasuries. For traders and derivatives desks, extended hours imply pressure on risk management and funding models, as volatility outside traditional hours may continuously pass through to the price of tokenized assets.
For custodians and institutions, the initiative requires institutional custody solutions, on-chain compliance and real-time monitoring mechanisms, with regulatory clarity in Japan presented as a factor that facilitates institutional adoption. Highlighted risks include concentration of counterparty exposure in issuing banks, interoperability challenges between infrastructures, and potential international regulatory scrutiny, according to cited analysts. Projections cited in the reports estimate a market for tokenized assets of up to $18.9 trillion by 2033, underscoring the potential scale and the need for robust governance frameworks.
The immediate milestone is the deployment of the 24/7 platform in 2026 and the introduction of DCJPY on the roadmap for 2026–fiscal 2026 (March 2027), steps that will mark the next stage of tokenization in regulated markets and reshape how liquidity, collateral and risk are managed across continuous trading windows.
