SBI VC Trade (SBI VCトレード) is the crypto exchange of SBI Holdings, the financial group behind SBI Securities and SBI Shinsei Bank. It is fully owned by SBI Holdings and registered with Japan's Financial Services Agency. If you have heard the name recently, it is probably because SBI VC Trade took over the customers of DMM Bitcoin after that exchange's 2024 hack, and then merged with BITPOINT in April 2026. By July 2026 the VCTRADE and BITPOINT brands together counted more than 2 million accounts.
This review is written for people living in Japan who read English first: international residents, long-term expats and anyone comparing domestic exchanges before moving money. All numbers come from SBI VC Trade's official fee page, its service overview and the FSA register. Fees and limits can change, so check the official pages before a large transfer.
SBI VC Trade at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operator | SBI VC Trade Co., Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of SBI Holdings |
| Licences | Crypto exchange: Kanto LFB No. 00011 · Financial instruments: Kanto LFB (Kinsho) No. 3247 · Electronic payment instruments dealer No. 00001 (Japan's first) |
| Coins | 35 on the official site, including the stablecoins USDC, RLUSD and JPYSC. Dealer desk 30, order book 8, leverage 13 |
| Order-book fees | Maker −0.01% (you are paid) · taker 0.05% |
| Yen in / out | Pay-easy deposit free, 24/7, instant · withdrawal free, ¥1,000 minimum, once a day, about 3 bank business days |
| Crypto in / out | Free; SBI pays the network fee. Some coins cannot be withdrawn |
| Minimum buy | ¥1 on the dealer desk; recurring buys from ¥500 |
What works
- Yen deposits (Pay-easy), yen withdrawals and crypto transfers are all free
- Order book: maker −0.01%, taker 0.05%, among the lowest in Japan
- Buy Bitcoin from ¥1; recurring purchases from ¥500 a day, week or month
- Staking on 14 coins with no sign-up or lock-up; 75% of the rewards go to you monthly
- USDC and RLUSD as Japan's first registered electronic payment instrument dealer
- Residence card accepted for foreign residents
Watch out for
- Only 8 coins (BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, LINK, LTC, DOT, NIDT) trade on the order book; others carry an unpublished dealer spread
- Yen withdrawals: once a day, ¥1,000 minimum, about 3 bank business days to arrive
- DOGE, SUI, NEAR, HBAR, FLR, CHZ, ZPG and JPYSC cannot be withdrawn to an outside wallet
- USDC capped at about ¥1 million equivalent per transfer and in total holdings
- Japanese-only website and app; no English page found
- The new iOS app is rated 1.82 out of 5 (375 ratings, October 2026)
Who is SBI VC Trade for?
The sweet spot is someone who moves money around. Most Japanese exchanges charge somewhere between ¥300 and ¥770 for each yen withdrawal, and 0.0004 to 0.0006 BTC to send Bitcoin out. SBI VC Trade charges nothing for either. If you buy on one exchange and store coins in a hardware wallet, or you pull yen out every month to cover rent, the savings add up quickly.
It also suits long-term holders of the large coins. ETH, SOL, ADA, DOT and ten other coins earn stakingRewards for letting your coins help secure a proof-of-stake blockchain. In Japan they count as income when received. rewards simply by sitting in your account, with no lock-up. XRP holders will feel at home: SBI has a long relationship with Ripple, often cited as one reason XRP trades so heavily in Japan, and XRP is one of the eight coins with an order book.
It is a poor match if you want to trade a wide range of altcoins cheaply. Anything outside the eight order-book coins has to go through the dealer desk (販売所, hanbaijo)The dealer desk (販売所, hanbaijo): the exchange sells to you directly at a quoted price. Easy, but the buy-sell gap is your real cost., where the spread is not published. For that style of trading, bitbank (now also an SBI subsidiary) puts every coin on an order book; see our bitbank review.
Finally, be realistic about language. The site, onboarding and app are in Japanese. Browser translation handles the website reasonably well, but the app is harder. Couple that with an iOS rating of 1.82, far below bitFlyer (4.35) or Coincheck (4.33), and it is worth trying the browser version with a small amount before you commit.
What do you actually pay? A ¥100,000 round trip
The logic is simple: getting money in and out is free, and you pay only when you trade. There are two places to trade. The order book (取引所, torihikijo)The exchange or order book (取引所, torihikijo): users trade with each other at prices they set. Lower fees, slightly more complex orders. charges a takerMaker: you place a limit order that waits on the book and adds liquidity. Taker: your order fills against one already there. 0.05% and pays a maker 0.01%. The dealer desk charges no fee but builds a spreadThe gap between the buy price and the sell price at the same moment. On dealer desks it can be several percent. into its prices.
| Buy ¥100,000 of BTC, sell it, withdraw | Order book, taker | Order book, maker | Dealer desk (2% spread assumed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deposit by Pay-easy | ¥0 | ¥0 | ¥0 |
| Buy | ≈¥50 | ≈¥10 paid to you | ≈¥2,000 |
| Sell | ≈¥50 | ≈¥10 paid to you | ≈¥2,000 |
| Yen withdrawal | ¥0 | ¥0 | ¥0 |
| Total | ≈¥100 | ≈¥20 in your favour | ≈¥4,000 |
Taking liquidity on the order book costs about ¥100 for the whole round trip. Placing limit orders as a maker can, in theory, earn you a few yen. Tapping "buy" on the dealer desk is where costs balloon: with a 2% spread each way you lose roughly ¥4,000. That 2% is our illustration, not an SBI figure, and real spreads vary by coin and by how volatile the market is.
Compared with competitors, the free exit is what stands out. Coincheck charges 0% to trade on its order book but ¥407 per yen withdrawal; bitFlyer's order book costs 0.01–0.15% according to its official fee page and withdrawals cost ¥550–¥770. Run your own numbers in the fee comparison calculator.
Deposits and withdrawals for international residents
Yen goes in through Pay-easy (ペイジー), a payment network many Japanese net banking services support. It is free, works 24/7 and credits instantly for ¥1,000 up to ¥1 billion per deposit. There is no convenience-store or credit-card option. Like every Japanese exchange, SBI VC Trade only accepts money from a bank account in your own name, so use the account where your name matches your residence card. If your bank shows your name in katakana or in full Latin capitals, enter it in the format the exchange asks for at sign-up.
Withdrawals are free but come with three rules: one per day, at least ¥1,000, and no changing the amount once submitted. The official overview gives about three bank business days for the money to arrive. If you need cash fast, for example to pay a deposit on a new apartment, GMO Coin's withdrawals usually land within minutes; compare them in our GMO Coin review.
Crypto transfers in and out are free and SBI pays the network fee, but several coins on the dealer desk cannot be sent out at all, including DOGE, SUI, NEAR, HBAR, FLR, CHZ and ZPG. Sending to another exchange also depends on the Travel RuleRules that make exchanges pass sender and recipient details along with crypto transfers. In force in Japan since June 2023. network each side uses, so test with a small amount first. Our wallet guide explains how withdrawals to your own wallet work in Japan.
Leaving Japan?
The account guide requires customers to be Japan residents. If you are relocating, plan your exit: free withdrawals make it cheap to sell and move yen to your bank, or to send supported coins to a wallet you control, before you go. Our guide to moving to or leaving Japan with crypto covers residency and tax timing.
Coins, staking, stablecoins and the SBI card
The dealer desk lists 30 assets, including BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, DOGE, ADA, AVAX, SUI, TON, SHIB and the three stablecoins. Eight coins have an order book, and 13 can be traded with leverage, capped at 2x for individuals as in all of Japan.
Staking covers ETH, SOL, TRX, ADA, HBAR, AVAX, SUI, TON, DOT, NEAR, ATOM, FLR, ALGO and XDC. There is nothing to sign up for and no lock-up: rewards are calculated from your average monthly balance and paid by the 15th of the following month. SBI passes on 75% of what it earns. Rewards arrive in the staked coin by default; you can switch to JPYSC, a yen stablecoin, which SBI stresses is not the same as yen. Lending covers 32 coins at up to 10% a year, and recurring buys cover 28 coins from ¥500 to ¥2 million.
For expats, the stablecoin side is the unusual part. SBI VC Trade became Japan's first registered stablecoinA token designed to track a currency such as the US dollar or yen. Japan regulates fiat-backed stablecoins as electronic payment instruments, separately from crypto assets. dealer in March 2025 and handles USDC and RLUSD, plus JPYSC, a trust-type yen stablecoin issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank since June 2026. A small USDC balance can be a convenient way to hold dollars inside a regulated Japanese account, but the ¥1 million equivalent cap rules it out for serious savings. More in our yen stablecoin guide.
The SBI VISA crypto card, launched in May 2026, pays 0.5% (1.0% on the Gold card) of spending in BTC, ETH or XRP, chosen when you apply. It is free in the first year, then ¥1,650 or ¥6,600 a year, and needs an SBI VC Trade account. The card company runs its own credit screening on top of your exchange account. Compare it with the other options in our crypto card guide.
Track record: DMM Bitcoin, BITPOINT and bitbank
SBI VC Trade's size is the product of consolidation. On 31 May 2024, about ¥48.2 billion worth of Bitcoin was stolen from DMM Bitcoin; Japan's National Police Agency later attributed the attack to the North Korea-linked group TraderTraitor. DMM Bitcoin agreed in December 2024 to hand all accounts and customer assets to SBI VC Trade, and the transfer took place on 8 March 2025. The hack happened at DMM, not at SBI VC Trade.
In April 2026 SBI VC Trade absorbed BITPOINT Japan, a group company, and in October 2026 bitbank became a wholly owned SBI subsidiary, though it still runs as a separate exchange. As a registered exchange, SBI VC Trade must keep customer assets separate from its own and hold most crypto in offline cold wallets. The FIEA amendment enacted in July 2026 is expected to add a compensation reserve for hacks. Background in our guide to crypto regulation in Japan.
If you hold a BITPOINT account, the key dates are: BITPOINT-only coins (OSHI, JMY, DEP, BNB, PEPE, TRUMP) delisted on 28 October 2026; BITPOINT PRO closing on 30 October 2026; voluntary transfers to VCTRADE planned from 10 November 2026; and a bulk transfer planned around the end of December 2026. After the move, yen withdrawals become free, but staking rewards are paid in crypto or JPYSC rather than yen. Make sure your name and address match on both services, or the system may not recognise you as the same person.
Opening an account as a foreign resident
Applications are done on a smartphone and SBI says trading can start the same day at the earliest. You must be an adult living in Japan and not a foreign politically exposed person. Have these ready:
- Your residence card (or special permanent resident certificate), valid and showing your current address
- A Japanese mobile number for SMS or call verification
- A Japanese bank account in your own name with Pay-easy-capable net banking
- Your tax residence and, if you are tax resident elsewhere, your foreign tax ID: since January 2026 Japanese exchanges ask for a CARF self-certification
The official guide does not mention rules for US persons; if you are a US citizen or green-card holder, ask support before applying. For a walkthrough of a first purchase, see how to buy Bitcoin in Japan, and for visa-by-visa eligibility across exchanges, see crypto for foreigners in Japan.
Alternatives worth comparing
GMO Coin is the closest match on cost: free yen withdrawals from ¥10,000, free crypto transfers, the same order-book fees on BTC, ETH and XRP, and free instant deposits from Japan Post Bank and PayPay Bank. Its withdrawals are faster. Coincheck has the most polished app and accepts convenience-store deposits, and bitFlyer is the long-running Bitcoin specialist; see the Coincheck review and bitFlyer review. If you live inside the PayPay ecosystem, read our Binance Japan review. The full licensed field is on our list of FSA-registered exchanges.
SBI VC Trade: common questions
Can foreigners open an SBI VC Trade account?
Yes, if you live in Japan and are an adult. The official account guide lists the residence card (在留カード) and the special permanent resident certificate as the ID documents for foreign nationals. Tourists and people without a Japanese address cannot open an account.
Does SBI VC Trade have an English version?
We could not find one. The website, sign-up flow and app are in Japanese, and the official site links to no English pages. Plan on using a browser translation tool and having your residence card details ready in the exact romanised form printed on the card.
Is SBI VC Trade really free?
Deposits by Pay-easy, yen withdrawals and crypto transfers in and out are free. Trading is not: the order book charges 0.05% to takers and pays 0.01% to makers, and the dealer desk builds an unpublished spread into its prices.
What happened to my DMM Bitcoin or BITPOINT account?
DMM Bitcoin accounts and assets moved to SBI VC Trade on 8 March 2025. BITPOINT merged into SBI VC Trade on 1 April 2026; voluntary transfers to the VCTRADE service are planned from 10 November 2026 and any remaining accounts are due to be moved in bulk around the end of December 2026.
Can I hold US dollar stablecoins on SBI VC Trade?
Yes. It handles USDC and RLUSD as a registered electronic payment instrument dealer. USDC deposits, withdrawals and holdings are each capped at about ¥1 million equivalent, so it suits small dollar balances rather than large savings.
Is staking income taxed in Japan?
Yes. Under the National Tax Agency FAQ, staking rewards are income when you receive them and are generally taxed as miscellaneous income at progressive rates of up to about 55% including resident tax. Keep the annual transaction report for your tax return.
Sources
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