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Japan’s biggest online brokerages are about to make crypto investing feel as routine as buying a mutual fund. SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities are each developing in-house cryptocurrency investment trusts, according to Nikkei Asia, giving Japanese retail investors a way to gain exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum without ever touching a wallet.
The move is significant for a country that has long been one of crypto’s most active retail markets but has lacked the kind of packaged investment products that have exploded in popularity in the US and Hong Kong.
What the trusts actually do
Instead of signing up for a crypto exchange, securing private keys, and navigating the operational headaches of self-custody, retail investors can buy into a trust through their existing brokerage account. The trusts are expected to track the prices of major digital assets, primarily Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Both SBI and Rakuten aren’t exactly crypto newcomers. SBI Securities is part of the SBI Group, which operates SBI VC Trade, a licensed cryptocurrency exchange in Japan. Rakuten Securities sits under the Rakuten Group umbrella alongside Rakuten Wallet, another regulated crypto trading platform. So both companies already have the infrastructure and regulatory relationships in place.
Why Japan, why now
Japan’s Financial Services Agency has been steadily clarifying its crypto regulatory framework since 2019, creating one of the more structured environments for digital asset businesses among major economies. The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US earlier this year sent a clear signal that traditional finance had stopped treating crypto as a fringe curiosity. Hong Kong followed with its own Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF approvals.
What this means for investors
For Japanese retail investors, millions of people who already have SBI or Rakuten brokerage accounts could soon add Bitcoin or Ethereum exposure to their portfolios through their existing accounts. No new account signups, no learning curve around crypto exchanges, no anxiety about security breaches on unfamiliar platforms.
The risk, as always with trust and fund structures, is that investors are one layer removed from the underlying asset. They don’t hold the Bitcoin directly. They hold units in a trust that holds the Bitcoin, which introduces counterparty considerations and management fees that don’t exist with direct ownership.
Watch for how Japan’s FSA responds to the filings and what fee structures SBI and Rakuten attach to these products. In the US, the fee war among spot Bitcoin ETF issuers drove costs down rapidly and was a major factor in their adoption.
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