SBI Marks Ripple Stake at ¥6.6 Trillion Amid XRP Wait

SBI Holdings valued its Ripple shareholding alone at ¥6.6 trillion, about $41.2 billion, during its record first-quarter earnings call even as XRP prices stayed soft and the group’s crypto unit posted a pretax loss.

The Japanese financial giant delivered its strongest Q1 on record across revenue and profit lines while management pointed to the pending US CLARITY Act as the reason crypto markets looked stuck.

The Call That Put ¥6.6 Trillion on the Table

On the earnings call covering April to June, the presenter walked through segment results and paused on digital assets. Crypto activity was described as sluggish, “as if waiting to determine whether the CLARITY Act will be enacted.”

Regarding Ripple, XRP prices, I talked about the CLARITY Act early, people are waiting for it to pass, therefore prices have been sluggish. Even so, just with the Ripple’s holdings, it is at JPY 6.6 trillion right now.

That line, carried in the full transcript published by Investing.com, became the headline takeaway. SBI stressed the equity stake in Ripple Labs rather than any direct XRP token pile. Earlier this year Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao had already clarified the firm owns roughly 9 percent of Ripple, not a $10 billion XRP hoard, calling the shareholding a “hidden asset” that could prove larger still.

Full details sit on the SBI Holdings investor relations materials and the earnings slides referenced in coverage.

Record Quarter Everywhere Except Crypto

The rest of the group ran hot. Revenue hit a first-quarter record of ¥571.0 billion. Profit before tax climbed 149.9 percent year over year to ¥225.8 billion. Net profit attributable to owners reached ¥148.1 billion. Annualized ROE printed 29 percent, nearly double the medium-term 15 percent target.

Private equity pretax profit jumped 328 percent to ¥119.9 billion. Financial services, banking (SBI Shinsei Bank already at 40 percent of full-year target), securities and insurance all set records. The crypto asset business was the clear laggard with its ¥1.4 billion pretax loss, though global market maker B2C2 stayed profitable.

Shares reacted well, rising about 7.5 percent in early trading after the beat.

Why the CLARITY Clock Matters Now

Management repeatedly tied the soft crypto tone to Washington. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (H.R. 3633) would set clearer rules for digital commodities and market structure. It cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May by a 15-9 bipartisan vote. Senator Cynthia Lummis released updated Clarity Act text from Lummis in late July and said Majority Leader John Thune has kept floor time open before the August recess.

Lummis noted competing items (continuing resolution, nominations, sanctions) but still expects a vote “tomorrow, or Monday, or Tuesday.” The full Digital Asset Market Clarity Act text is available on Congress.gov. Until that cloud lifts, SBI said, XRP and broader crypto volumes stay muted.

• May 2026: Banking Committee passes bill 15-9
• July 22: Lummis drops updated merged text
• Late July: Lummis flags possible floor action before recess
• August: Bitbank acquisition targeted to close

XRP itself traded near $1.06 in late July, down from higher levels earlier in the cycle and well off prior peaks.

A Partnership That Started in 2016

SBI and Ripple go back a decade. In January 2016 the two announced the 2016 deal that created SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture to sell Ripple’s enterprise cross-border solutions across Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and ASEAN. Kitao called Ripple the only firm with battle-tested bank traction in the region. The pair also explored listing XRP on SBI’s brokerage platforms.

That early equity position grew into the roughly 9 percent stake Kitao confirmed in February 2026. At Ripple’s November 2025 $40 billion funding-round valuation, 9 percent would have sat near $3.6 billion. SBI’s July mark of ¥6.6 trillion implies a far higher internal view of Ripple’s enterprise value, closer to the $400 billion-plus range if the ownership percentage has held steady. On X, traders immediately ran the math and called the gap either visionary or stretched. SBI simply keeps reporting the higher figure as the stake’s current worth.

What the Stake Number Signals

SBI is not treating the Ripple holding as a trading position that must track daily XRP prints. It sits inside the private-equity and next-generation buckets that just delivered huge gains. The company has used XRP in shareholder-benefit programs for years and continues to expand on-chain products.

¥6.6 trillion is the standout figure management chose to highlight while the operating crypto unit lost money. That choice frames the equity stake as a strategic core asset, not a side bet. Earlier remarks from Kitao already rejected the idea that SBI’s exposure was mainly tokens; the upside, he said, lives in the company and the ecosystem it has built.

Whether the mark proves conservative or aggressive will turn on regulatory clarity, Ripple’s own trajectory and any future liquidity event. For now SBI is comfortable putting a very large number on the books and telling shareholders the wait is temporary.

Expansion Moves While the Market Waits

The group is not sitting still on digital assets. Management listed concrete steps aimed at the next upswing:

• JPYSC stablecoin lending and support services launched via SBI VC Trade
• RLUSD (Ripple USD) handling begun after Japanese regulatory approval
• Planned full acquisition of Bitbank, targeted for August, to push combined crypto accounts toward 3 million and assets under custody higher
• Continued build-out of B2C2 and on-chain finance alliances
• Investments and tie-ups across Canton Network and other platforms

VC Trade already holds roughly 2 million accounts and ¥530 billion in assets under management. Closing Bitbank would put the group among Japan’s larger crypto platforms by customer count. These moves sit alongside the Ripple stake rather than replacing it.

SBI’s bet is straightforward. Core banking, securities and private equity are printing record numbers today. The Ripple equity is already marked at a level that assumes substantial future success. XRP price weakness and a one-quarter crypto loss are noise while the CLARITY calendar runs. If the Act lands and the ecosystem expands, the ¥6.6 trillion figure will look early. If not, the mark will face harder questions. For the moment the company is holding the line in public and building capacity underneath it.