SBI Holdings has taken an approximately 20% stake in Indonesia’s Ajaib Group through a $270 million strategic investment, giving the Japanese financial services company an equity-method affiliate in one of Southeast Asia’s largest retail multi-asset platforms.
Ajaib announced the funding on LinkedIn on Friday, describing it as Indonesia’s largest technology funding round since 2022. The Jakarta-based company said it has raised more than $500 million in total since its founding in 2019. SBI confirmed the size of its shareholding in a separate announcement but did not disclose a dollar value for the transaction.
The deal places SBI alongside a platform that combines stockbroking, funds, bonds, exchange-traded funds, crypto assets, stablecoins, commodities and foreign exchange. Ajaib also offers payment and savings products, while its business-to-business operations include over-the-counter stablecoin settlement and liquidity services for Indonesian companies and institutional clients.
For SBI, the stake offers a route into Indonesia’s retail financial market without building a local brokerage, crypto and payments operation from the ground up. For Ajaib, the investment links its consumer-facing platform to a Japanese financial group that has spent years developing crypto, tokenization and blockchain businesses across Asia and Europe.
sbi targets southeast asian digital-asset network
Yoshitaka Kitao, chairman and president of SBI Holdings, said the company sees growing demand for infrastructure that can support tokenized and digital assets globally. He positioned Ajaib within SBI’s plan to establish a network of digital-asset exchanges across Southeast Asia through its “SBI APAC Digital Economic Zone” initiative.
Tokenization refers to representing financial assets, such as bonds, funds or other claims, on a blockchain. Financial groups have focused on the model because blockchain-based settlement could shorten the movement of assets and cash between parties, particularly where transactions currently rely on multiple intermediaries.
Ajaib’s product range makes it more useful to SBI than a single-purpose crypto exchange. Its customers can access conventional Indonesian and international investment products alongside digital assets, while its payments and savings services could create connections between trading accounts and day-to-day cash management.
The company’s stablecoin settlement operation is also relevant to SBI’s stated digital-asset strategy. Stablecoins are tokens designed to maintain a fixed value, typically by being linked to a national currency. They are increasingly used for moving funds between trading venues and counterparties, though their role in domestic payments remains tightly regulated in many jurisdictions.
SBI said it already operates crypto-related businesses in Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Its digital-asset projects include JPYSC, a yen-denominated stablecoin initiative, and Strium, a Layer 1 blockchain being developed for financial applications. A Layer 1 blockchain is a base network that processes and records transactions without depending on another blockchain for its core security.
indonesia offers a large digital-asset customer base
Indonesia’s financial regulators have recorded far more digital-asset users than conventional equity holders, illustrating why international financial firms are increasingly interested in the market’s trading infrastructure.
The Otoritas Jasa Keuangan, Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority, reported 22.7 million digital-asset customers in the first half of 2026, compared with about 10 million investors in the country’s stock market. The figures do not mean every digital-asset customer trades regularly, but they show the scale of the customer base available to platforms that can offer regulated access across several asset classes.
OJK data also put Indonesian crypto-asset transaction value at 28.58 trillion rupiah during the first six months of 2026. Trading volumes can fluctuate sharply with market prices and speculative activity, yet the figures provide a commercial rationale for platforms seeking to integrate brokerage, crypto liquidity and local-currency payment services.
Ajaib was founded by Anderson Sumarli and Yada Piyapornratanakul, initially gaining recognition through its Indonesian retail investment applications. Its expansion across multiple asset categories follows a regional pattern in which financial platforms seek to retain customers by offering stocks, funds, foreign exchange and crypto through a single account ecosystem.
That model has practical limits. Each asset class operates under different rules, with separate requirements for custody, customer identification, capital, product disclosure and transaction reporting. A platform that combines these services must manage the complexity without making the customer experience harder to use.
regulatory pressure will shape the integration
Indonesia’s digital-asset market has moved under closer financial-sector supervision, with OJK taking over regulatory oversight of crypto assets from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, known as Bappebti, in January 2025. The transition brought crypto oversight closer to the framework used for other financial services.
SBI’s entry is unlikely to change those domestic rules, but its presence adds a large, regulated financial partner to Ajaib’s ownership structure. That could support investment in compliance systems, liquidity operations and institutional services as Ajaib handles products that span both conventional finance and blockchain-based assets.
The transaction also avoids treating crypto as a separate customer segment. Ajaib’s structure allows users to move across asset types within the same financial platform, while its corporate stablecoin services address a different need: settlement and liquidity for businesses rather than retail speculation.
Whether Ajaib eventually links brokerage balances, payment functions and digital wallets more closely will depend on product design and Indonesian regulation. The immediate result is more concrete: SBI has bought a meaningful minority position in a local platform already operating across the areas—retail trading, stablecoin services and digital-asset access—that sit at the center of its Southeast Asian expansion plans.
Explore how regional stablecoin growth shapes cross-border finance in Asia—read why stablecoins are important in Asia today.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not represent the views or financial advice of Toobit. We make no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of this information and shall not be held liable for any errors, omissions, or outcomes resulting from its use. Investing in digital assets involves risk; users should independently evaluate their financial situation and the risks involved. For further details, please consult our Terms of Service and Risk Disclosure.
