SBI Holdings clarified it owns 9% of Ripple Labs, not $10B in XRP tokens. A look at what that equity stake actually means for institutional crypto positioning.
SBI Holdings CEO Yoshitaka Kitao stepped in this week to correct a widespread misunderstanding. The Japanese financial giant doesn't hold $10 billion in XRP tokens, as some reports suggested. Instead, SBI owns approximately 9% of Ripple Labs—the company behind the XRP Ledger and a growing suite of blockchain-based financial tools.
Kitao described this stake as a "hidden asset," one that doesn't fully show up in SBI's reported valuations. He pointed out that when you account for Ripple's entire ecosystem—its technology stack, global partnerships, payment infrastructure, and ventures like the RLUSD stablecoin—the figure becomes far more substantial. With Ripple's private market valuation estimated above $50 billion, that 9% equity position could be worth over $4.5 billion, potentially more depending on how future developments unfold.
There's a meaningful difference between holding tokens and holding equity. Token holdings expose an investor directly to market volatility, which can be brutal in crypto. Equity in a private company building financial infrastructure is a different bet entirely. It's tied to business growth, partnerships, adoption metrics, and long-term value creation—not to daily trading sentiment.
SBI's involvement with Ripple goes back to 2016, when the two firms launched SBI Ripple Asia. Since then, SBI has integrated XRP into remittance services through SBI Remit, participated in Ripple's $1 billion treasury initiative via Evernorth Holdings, and continued expanding its blockchain operations across Japan and Southeast Asia. The firm also recently acquired a majority stake in Singapore-based crypto exchange Coinhako, reinforcing its regional strategy.
Japan's regulatory environment has been relatively progressive when it comes to digital assets, and SBI has positioned itself at the intersection of traditional finance and blockchain innovation. The firm manages roughly ¥10 trillion in assets and has openly discussed plans to launch crypto ETFs that include both Bitcoin and XRP.
What's interesting about Kitao's clarification is the timing. It came just as speculation about Ripple's potential IPO resurfaced. If Ripple ever goes public—and CEO Brad Garlinghouse has hinted at that possibility—SBI's 9% stake would become far more transparent, and potentially far more valuable. Garlinghouse recently suggested that a crypto company could eventually reach a $1 trillion valuation. If Ripple hit that mark, SBI's stake would theoretically be worth $90 billion.
That kind of scenario is speculative, but it highlights why equity positioning matters for institutions looking at crypto through a longer lens. SBI isn't gambling on short-term price pumps. They're betting on infrastructure, regulatory clarity, and institutional adoption—things that take years to play out, but carry less volatility than holding the underlying token.
