SBI Holdings CEO Yoshitaka Kitao dismissed the claim that the Japanese financial group holds $10 billion worth of XRP, instead saying that SBI’s most significant exposure rests in its equity position in Ripple Labs, a stake he suggests the market may not appreciate.
The exchange began after the X account described SBI as a “major partner of Ripple” and “owner of $10 billion in XRP,” which included the claim of SBI’s growth in Asia through the acquisition of Coinhako, a regulated crypto platform based in Singapore. Kitao responded directly, disputing the draft and pointing to SBI’s ownership of Ripple rather than the subject’s XRP number.
“Not $10 bil. in XRP but about 9% of Ripple Lab. So our hidden property can be very big,” Kitao wrote on Feb. 15 posts.
SBI CEO Dials Up Ripple Valuation Speculation
Kitao’s answer nicely shifted the conversation from off-balance sheet tokenization to private market ownership. Rather than confirming a specific figure for XRP, he emphasized SBI’s stake in Ripple Labs, an important detail because equity value is ultimately a function of Ripple’s overall valuation, not XRP’s price.
In a separate post that day, Kitao went further, clearly linking his idea to Ripple’s broader initiatives. “When it comes to the total value of Ripple Lab which obviously includes its ecosystem created by Ripple, that would be huge,” he wrote. “SBI holds more than 9% of that money.”
Community member “BankXRP” raised the stakes by referring to recent reports that put Ripple’s value at “$50B+,” arguing that such a markup would put SBI’s 9% stake at “$4.5B+,” and a “big future as the CEO suggests.”
Although Kitao did not put a dollar value on SBI’s stake, the 9% number sets a clean benchmark. If Ripple’s ownership of SBI were worth more than $10 billion, Ripple’s implied valuation would need to exceed about $111 billion, because $10 billion divided by 0.09 equals $111.1 billion.
Put differently, at Ripple’s valuation of $90 billion, the sum of 9% would be about $8.1 billion; for $50 billion, it would be $4.5 billion. So the “ten billion dollar” threshold is not a subtle rounding error, it requires a three-digit billion valuation on Ripple.
Notably, SBI’s nearly 9% position appears to be the product of a long-term working relationship rather than a single trade: SBI’s investor materials describe the Ripple relationship as “established” in September 2012, the group later invested in Ripple in March 2016 and deepened operational ties, SBI Ripple% of Asia 60 Ripple. 40%) was introduced in May 2016.
SBI also participated as an investor in Ripple’s Series C funding of $200 million announced in December 2019, a round that included SBI and other backers, which is one of the clearest public data showing continued equity exposure as Ripple raises capital.
At press time, XRP traded at $1.46.
The featured image was created with DALL.E, a chart from TradingView.com
Planning process because bitcoinist focuses on delivering well-researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We maintain strict sourcing standards, and each page is diligently reviewed by our team of senior technical experts and experienced editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content to our readers.
