SBI Shinsei turns yen interest into BTC, ETH, XRP vouchers — bank now buffering in sats 🏦

SBI Shinsei Bank will launch a service that awards deposit customers with cryptocurrency exchange vouchers worth 20% of their yen interest payments, on top of standard interest, according to a Nikkei report. Vouchers can be redeemed for Bitcoin ($BTC), Ether ($ETH), or XRP within a specified period through SBI VC Trade, the group's crypto exchange arm, which customers must hold an account with to claim rewards. The vouchers are exchanged at market rates at the time of conversion.

Ahead of a permanent launch slated for this fall between September and November, SBI Shinsei will run a three-month campaign beginning Wednesday. The campaign covers ordinary deposits as well as time deposits with terms ranging from three months to five years. The structure effectively converts a conventional savings product into a crypto on-ramp, allowing bank customers to acquire digital assets without making direct purchases.

The deposit-voucher program is part of a broader crypto expansion by SBI Group. On March 18, SBI VC Trade launched a retail USDC lending service that lets users lend the stablecoin to the platform under fixed-term agreements, structured as a loan to the exchange rather than a bank deposit. On May 1, the group said it was considering acquiring shares in the Bitbank trading platform and making it a consolidated subsidiary, a month after SBI VC Trade absorbed Bitpoint Japan. The group's securities arm, SBI Securities, is also preparing to sell funds developed by SBI Global Asset Management, including investment trusts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on crypto assets such as $BTC and $ETH.

The moves extend SBI's regulated crypto access points across bank deposits, exchange services, securities products, and stablecoin lending. SBI has maintained a long-standing partnership with Ripple and has sponsored multiple projects involving the XRP Ledger and XRP across Asia. Startale also recently raised $50 million from SBI to complete a $63 million Series A round, underscoring the conglomerate's continued capital deployment into the digital asset sector.