SBI Leads $76m Round for EDX Markets as Institutional Crypto Rails Expand

EDX Markets, the institutional-only digital asset venue, has closed a $76 million Series C funding round led by Japan’s SBI Holdings, as the company pushes to formalise its role in regulated crypto market infrastructure. The capital will support the expansion of trading, clearing and settlement capabilities, alongside new product development and global growth, EDX said.

The raise arrives as EDX simultaneously seeks a national trust bank charter in the United States, underscoring a strategic pivot from pure trading infrastructure towards regulated custody and clearing services aimed squarely at institutional counterparties rather than retail investors.

A regulatory-compliant footprint across jurisdictions

EDX operates an institutional-only crypto marketplace alongside a central clearinghouse, a US-focused spot exchange, and a Singapore-based perpetual futures venue serving eligible non-US institutional clients. The structure allows the firm to segment regulated activity by jurisdiction, a model that has drawn interest from established financial institutions wary of regulatory ambiguity in digital asset markets.

EDX has also filed with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish EDX Trust, a proposed national trust bank that would handle custody, clearing, settlement and risk management. If approved, the charter would give EDX a federally regulated banking wrapper around its existing trading infrastructure, a step several digital asset firms have pursued as they seek closer alignment with traditional financial oversight.

SBI’s stablecoin and settlement ambitions

SBI Holdings said the investment fits its wider strategy across stablecoins, securities, banking and crypto-related services. The Japanese financial group has been developing JPYSC, a yen-denominated stablecoin backed by a Japanese trust bank, while also handling US dollar stablecoins including RLUSD and USDC as part of its broader digital asset ecosystem.

EDX CEO Tony Acuña-Rohter said the firm was “pleased to welcome SBI as a strategic partner” as it expands its digital asset products. SBI Holdings Chairman and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said EDX offers a “regulatory-compliant platform” for institutional digital asset infrastructure.

The cross-border tie-up highlights how institutional crypto infrastructure providers are increasingly linking settlement rails across currencies and regulatory regimes, connecting yen and dollar stablecoin flows through a single institutional trading and clearing platform.

Prime brokerage and clearing links deepen

The funding follows a series of product expansions at EDX. In May, Ripple Prime integrated with EDX Markets and EDXM International, giving institutional clients access to spot and perpetual futures liquidity through a single prime brokerage framework. That arrangement also assigned RLUSD a planned role in settlement and collateral, part of a broader industry effort to link trading venues, margin financing and stablecoin-based settlement within one operational system.

EDX has separately launched EDX FlowConnect, a crypto-as-a-service offering that allows partner firms to provide digital asset trading to their own clients without building infrastructure independently.

The Series C round comes despite broader venture capital activity in crypto remaining below its 2021 peak, according to crypto.news. Investors have nonetheless continued directing capital towards trading systems, settlement networks, tokenised assets and payment rails, areas regulators in both the US and Asia have signalled as priorities for oversight as institutional adoption of digital assets accelerates.

Read more: SEC’s 2026 Agenda Signals Shift From Enforcement to Rulemaking for Crypto Brokers