SBI Shinsei Bank will reportedly launch a service that rewards deposit customers with cryptocurrency exchange vouchers based on their account balances.
According to a Nikkei report, customers will receive vouchers equal to 20% of their interest payments, in addition to their yen-denominated interest. The vouchers can be exchanged for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or XRP within a specified period.
Customers would need to open an account with SBI’s crypto exchange arm, SBI VC Trade, to redeem the vouchers.
The rollout turns a conventional savings product into a crypto on-ramp, potentially exposing mainstream bank customers to digital assets without requiring them to make direct purchases.
Ahead of the permanent launch, SBI Shinsei will reportedly run a three-month campaign starting Wednesday, covering ordinary deposits and time deposits ranging from three months to five years.
SBI expands crypto push across deposits, lending and investment products
The deposit-voucher service follows several crypto moves by SBI Group as the financial conglomerate prepares for broader digital asset adoption in Japan.
On March 18, SBI VC Trade launched a retail USDC lending service, allowing users to lend the stablecoin to the platform under fixed-term agreements in exchange for returns. The product is structured as a loan to the exchange rather than a bank deposit, which means that users take direct counterparty risk.
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SBI has also been expanding its position in the local crypto exchange market. On May 1, the group said it was considering acquiring shares in the Bitbank trading platform and making it a consolidated subsidiary, a month after SBI VC Trade absorbed Bitpoint Japan.
Top crypto exchanges in Japan. Source: CoinGecko
The group’s securities arm is also preparing crypto investment products. SBI Securities reportedly plans to sell funds developed by SBI Global Asset Management, including investment trusts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on crypto assets like BTC and ETH.
The moves show that the group is working to build crypto access points across regulated channels, from bank deposits and exchange services to securities products and stablecoin lending.
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