SBI tokenises Japanese equity fund on Solana under Singapore securities law
SBI Global Asset Management and DigiFT launch the JX token, billed as the first tokenised Japanese equity strategy, for institutional investors.
SBI Global Asset Management has launched what it describes as the world’s first tokenised Japanese equity fund, putting a high-dividend listed-equity strategy on the Solana blockchain in partnership with Singapore-regulated platform DigiFT. The product, named the JX token, went live on 14 July and is restricted to institutional and accredited investors under Singapore’s Securities and Futures Act.
The launch marks a notable step for real-world-asset tokenisation, extending the practice beyond bonds and money-market funds into actively managed equity strategies domiciled in a major developed market. It also underlines Solana’s continued push into institutional finance, an area where competing chains have been vying for tokenisation mandates from banks and asset managers.
A regulated wrapper for Japanese equities
Formally titled the SBI Japan High Dividend Equity Strategy Token, JX is managed by SBI Asset Management Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of SBI Global Asset Management. Rather than distributing dividends to token holders, the fund is structured as a growth strategy, meaning investors are exposed to capital appreciation from the underlying Japanese equities rather than periodic income payouts.
By routing the product through Singapore’s securities regime rather than issuing it purely as an unregulated digital token, SBI and DigiFT have sought to give institutional buyers a compliance framework more familiar to traditional asset managers. That approach mirrors a broader trend among tokenisation platforms courting regulated capital, which typically requires clear custody, disclosure and investor-eligibility rules before committing funds on-chain.
Timed to Tokyo’s capital-efficiency drive
The launch coincides with a sustained campaign by the Tokyo Stock Exchange to press listed companies on capital efficiency, prompting many to return more cash to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. That shift has revived global investor interest in Japanese equities generally, and in high-dividend strategies in particular, making the timing of a tokenised product built around such a strategy unlikely to be coincidental.
For European institutions weighing exposure to Japanese equities, a tokenised structure could in principle offer faster settlement and fractional access compared with conventional fund wrappers, though the product remains limited to accredited and institutional buyers rather than retail investors.
Part of a wider tokenisation wave
The JX token adds to a rapidly expanding market for tokenised real-world assets, which one of the outlets covering the launch noted has grown nearly fourfold over the past year, though that figure has not been independently verified by PoundToken. Japanese institutions have been especially active in this space, with platforms such as Progmat already moving billions of dollars in tokenised assets onto public blockchains.
The entry of a mainstream Japanese asset manager into tokenised equities is likely to be watched closely by European regulators and exchanges assessing how MiCA-compliant frameworks and traditional securities law might eventually accommodate similar on-chain equity products.
Read more: Japan’s Progmat shifts billions in tokenised assets onto Avalanche’s public chain
