SBI Holdings Backs EDX Markets With $76 Million, Fuels OCC Trust Charter Bid

EDX Markets closed a $76 million Series C funding round led by SBI Holdings, the Chicago-based crypto exchange operator announced Tuesday. The latest round adds a major Japanese financial backer to EDX’s cap table as the firm pushes deeper into institutional digital asset infrastructure. EDX operates an institution-only trading venue paired with a central clearinghouse, a model built to mirror the risk controls and settlement standards found in traditional markets. Money from the raise will go toward expanding EDX’s trading, clearing, and settlement operations. The firm also plans to speed up product development and grow its footprint outside the United States. CEO Tony Acuna-Rohter said SBI brings experience serving global financial institutions and a track record of scaling businesses in the sector. He called the partnership a fit for EDX’s push to give institutions confident, large-scale access to digital assets. SBI Holdings has spent the past year building out its own digital asset lineup. The firm recently launched JPYSC, described as Japan’s first trust bank-backed yen stablecoin. SBI also handles U.S. dollar stablecoins RLUSD and USDC domestically in Japan. Yoshitaka Kitao, SBI’s chairman and president, stated that EDX’s platform addresses growing institutional demand for regulated market infrastructure. He pointed to JPYSC and SBI’s stablecoin distribution work as part of a broader ecosystem the EDX investment will now plug into. Kitao added that SBI expects the partnership to accelerate innovation and expand market access for digital assets on a global scale. “We believe trusted market infrastructure will serve as a critical foundation for institutional adoption,” Kitao remarked. The funding lands as EDX pursues a national trust bank charter. The firm filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish EDX Trust, which would offer regulated custody, clearing, settlement, and risk management services if approved. EDX also rolled out EDX Flowconnect earlier this year, a crypto-as-a-service product that lets firms launch their own digital asset trading offerings for customers. Institutional plumbing rarely makes headlines the way price swings do, but it shapes how much capital can move into crypto markets and how fast. A regulated clearinghouse backed by a firm like SBI gives banks and asset managers another entry point that looks more like the infrastructure they already trust. SBI’s involvement also ties EDX to Japan’s stablecoin market at a moment when yen-backed and dollar-backed stablecoins are both expanding under regulatory frameworks. That connection could matter for traders watching cross-border stablecoin flows and institutional adoption trends heading into the back half of 2026. EDX has not disclosed its post-money valuation following the round. EDX already counted some of the largest trading and venture capital firms among its backers before SBI joined the round. Its founding backers include industry giants such as Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab Corporation, Virtu Financial, Sequoia Capital, and Paradigm. A few developments will show whether this funding round translates into real market share: whether the OCC approves EDX Trust and on what timeline; how quickly EDX Flowconnect gains adoption among firms building customer-facing crypto products; and whether SBI’s yen stablecoin ecosystem creates new volume for EDX beyond the U.S. market. None of those outcomes are guaranteed. Still, the size of the round and the identity of its lead investor signal that institutional interest in regulated crypto market infrastructure has not slowed down.

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/sbi-holdings-backs-edx-markets-with-76-million-fuels-occ-trust-charter-bid/