Japanese financial services company, SBI Holdings announced today that it will raise funds by holding a security token offering (STO) using the Ibet blockchain platform from Boostry, instead of conventional stocks and corporate bonds. The blockchain tech Boostry came into being after Japanese firms Nomura Holdings and Nomura Research Institute (NRI) established this blockchain platform especially for the exchange of digital securities.
The group has planned to hold the first sale of tokenized stock by late October, this year. With regard to issuing the shares, though, SBI Holdings will be the underwriter for its subsidiary, SBI e-Sports, which will issue 1,000 shares of common stock by 30 October.
Further, SBI Holdings has also considered launching a new business that will handle public offerings of digital corporate bonds via SBI Securities, another subsidiary of the group. According to the company, SBI Securities will be the underwriter of digital corporate bonds. The firm planned to use the previously mentioned ibet blockchain tech to manage the digital bonds in question. The subsidiary may also manage STOs for other assets like fine arts, intellectual property rights, and real estate, which the firm believed would allow investors to own smaller shares of the aforementioned assets.
The financial giant had always been familiar with the crypto and blockchain sector. With the help of its long time business partner, Ripple, SBI Holdings had added Money Tap, its cash transfer app, to its business, which was built on Ripple XRP ledger technology. In fact, earlier this year, SBI launched its S Coin platform which allows governments and corporations to issue digital tokens via the Corda blockchain network from R3.