Last week SBI gave an investor presentation in which there was significant coverage of digital currencies, securities token offerings and blockchain. Most of the activities were previously announced, but three pieces were newsworthy. Firstly, it mentioned creating a crypto-asset fund targeted at individual investors. It claims it is R3’s largest outside shareholder. And SBI states it wants to extend its collaboration with 13 investee companies that relate to digital assets or “make them subsidiaries”.
The presentation includes a pie chart for a new cryptocurrency fund in which 50% of the assets are XRP, roughly 30% in Bitcoin and 20% Ether. It plans to involve several group subsidiaries in the fund management, including SBI Alternative Investments, SBI Securities and SBI Moneyplaza for distribution, and crypto asset exchange SBI VC Trade for investment and custody. Morningstar Japan is referenced as providing “adoption ratio advice” for the portfolio. This could mean that the 50% XRP proportion is just illustrative. Fundraising is expected to start in the summer of 2020.
However, the presentation also included mention of another fund for which there was more detail. The “4+5 Fund”, a nod to Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0, will be up to JPY 100 billion ($928 million).
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