SBI Takes Over TaoTao Exchange That Just Ditched Binance

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked...

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June 26, 2023 06:55 EDT

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One of Japan’s biggest financial companies, the SBI Group, has made a major move in the domestic market, snapping up a controlling stake in the TaoTao crypto exchange from Yahoo Japan.

The size of the deal was not disclosed, but TaoTao (previously known as BitARG prior to Yahoo Japan’s involvement) confirmed in a press release that SBI had acquired all of Yahoo Japan operator Z Holdings’ shares in the exchange – while Japanese media reports are claiming that TaoTao has become an official SBI “subsidiary.”

In the press release, TaoTao explained that it had undergone a “change of shareholders,” with Yahoo Japan’s shares.

The company added that it had also “formed a partnership with” SBI’s SBILM subsidiary, a newly launched branch of the financial giant that is set to use R3 blockchain consortium-developed technology to power its foreign exchange trading solutions.

The news comes in a busy week for both TaoTao and SBI. Earlier this week, the former stated that it had ended talks with Binance on a ”strategic partnership discussion” with TaoTao and Z Holdings – a deal that could have seen Binance return to the Japanese market.

SBI operates a crypto exchange of its own in Japan – SBI VC Trade – as well as a crypto mining subsidiary named SBI Crypto. It also runs the SBI-Ripple Asia blockchain network in conjunction with American crypto giant Ripple.

Yahoo Japan is the nation’s leading search engine. The firm is backed by SoftBank, which owns a 48% stake in the company Yahoo Japan. The company is also set to merge with Line, the brainchild of South Korean internet giant Naver, in a deal that will conclude early next year.

It has also been a momentous week for SBI. Today, Cryptonews.com reported that SBI is set to join forces with a Swiss cryptobank to create a USD 66.3m unlisted stocks fund for promising crypto and blockchain startups in Europe and Southeast Asia.

Also, this past summer, the Japanese financial giant stumped up USD 30 million for a stake in a UK-based crypto liquidity firm.

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