SBI Shinsei Bank, the banking arm of Japan’s SBI Group, is testing a novel way to funnel savers into crypto: a deposit-linked rewards program that hands out cryptocurrency exchange vouchers to account holders.
What’s happening
- Starting June 10, SBI Shinsei will run a three-month trial that gives depositors vouchers worth 20% of their deposit interest. Vouchers are redeemable for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) or XRP “within a certain period,” with conversions set at market rates when redeemed.
- The campaign covers fixed-term deposits and savings products with maturities from three months to five years. Example payouts cited by local outlets: a 300,000-yen deposit would generate roughly a 500-yen voucher; deposits of 30 million yen or more would earn about 20,000 yen in vouchers.
- To convert vouchers into crypto, customers will be required to open an account at SBI VC Trade, the group’s crypto exchange. SBI Shinsei says it will use feedback from the trial—along with metrics such as new account openings and usage—to decide whether to make the program permanent this fall.
Why it matters
- Turning part of deposit interest into crypto rewards is unusual for a mainstream bank, signaling an aggressive strategy to use traditional banking flows to drive customers into SBI’s digital-asset ecosystem, notably SBI VC Trade.
- SBI Shinsei already serves roughly 4.33 million individual deposit accounts, giving the group a large base from which to recruit crypto users if the program scales.
How this fits SBI’s broader crypto push
- The voucher trial follows earlier initiatives: in February SBI Shinsei and SBI VC Trade ran an XRP voucher campaign tied to Power Direct yen time deposits.
- SBI Group has been rapidly expanding its crypto product set: in March SBI VC Trade launched a retail USDC lending service; in May SBI VC Trade, APLUS and Visa Worldwide Japan introduced the SBI Visa Crypto Card (which converts rewards into BTC, ETH or XRP and links to SBI Securities’ investment services for automated crypto accumulation).
- On the institutional and market side, SBI is developing crypto investment trusts with SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities, building a blockchain for tokenized stocks with Startale Group, issuing a yen-backed stablecoin called JPYSC, and consolidating its exchange footprint—moving to acquire a stake in Bitbank and integrating Bitpoint Japan into SBI VC Trade.
- SBI has also filed for crypto-related ETFs on the Tokyo Stock Exchange: a combined Bitcoin/XRP ETF targeting $32 billion in assets within three years, and a “Digital Gold Crypto” ETF that would allocate roughly 51% to gold and 49% to digital assets.
Bottom line
SBI’s voucher program is an experiment in linking traditional deposits to crypto exposure. If the trial proves popular, it could become a permanent, if unconventional, bridge from retail banking into the broader crypto services SBI has been layering across its group.
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