SBI Holdings and Startale Unveil Strium, a Layer 1 Blockchain for Tokenized Securities

Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings and blockchain developer Startale Group have unveiled Strium, a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain designed to support the institutional trading of tokenized securities and real-world assets (RWAs).

The launch positions Strium as a foundational on-chain exchange and settlement layer aimed at bridging traditional capital markets with blockchain-native infrastructure, with a particular focus on Asia’s regulated financial ecosystem.

A Settlement Layer Built for Institutional Markets

Strium is designed to handle institutional-grade trading activity across multiple asset classes, including foreign exchange, tokenized equities, such as U.S. and Japanese stocks, and a broader range of RWAs.

Rather than functioning as a general-purpose blockchain, the network is optimized for high-throughput, low-latency settlement in environments where transaction reliability and compliance are critical.

The newly released proof of concept (PoC) highlights Strium’s ability to maintain system stability under heavy traffic, process transactions with high settlement efficiency, and interoperate with existing financial infrastructure. These features are intended to address long-standing bottlenecks in cross-border settlement and post-trade reconciliation.

Targeting Asia’s On-Chain Securities Market

The partners are positioning Strium as core infrastructure for Asia’s emerging on-chain securities market, enabling 24/7 trading and near-instant settlement across jurisdictions. To improve accessibility beyond institutional users, the platform will incorporate advanced account abstraction, reducing the complexity of wallet management for retail participants while maintaining compatibility with decentralized finance applications.

This approach reflects a broader shift toward integrating blockchain systems directly into regulated market structures, rather than operating in parallel to them.

Stablecoin Integration and Adoption Strategy

As part of the roadmap, SBI Holdings and Startale are developing a yen-denominated stablecoin to support on-chain settlement, with a planned launch in Q2 2026. The stablecoin will be issued by Shinsei Trust & Banking and distributed via SBI VC Trade, providing a regulated settlement asset tailored to domestic and cross-border use cases.

The project represents the first major milestone of a strategic partnership announced in August 2025. SBI Holdings intends to leverage its customer base of approximately 80 million users to drive adoption of the Strium ecosystem, a scale advantage that could accelerate liquidity formation once the network goes live.

What Comes Next

A public testnet for Strium is expected to launch later in 2026, marking the next step toward production deployment. If successful, the platform could become a central piece of infrastructure for tokenized securities trading in Asia, signaling a move toward fully regulated, blockchain-based capital markets.

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