SBI Global Asset Management Co.Ltd.

SBI Asset Management will launch and begin managing its second product under its business alliance with UK-based Man Group, the SBI-Man AI Insights Japan Equity Fund, nicknamed AI Senrigan, on August 28. The initial offering begins on August 17, with SBI Securities handling distribution. The fund scores roughly 1,800 Japanese stocks using proprietary models that employ AI, machine learning, and alternative data, and invests in a diversified portfolio of about 100 to 200 names. Actual management is handled by Man Numeric, the quantitative arm of Man Group. Its Japan equity strategy, the Numeric Japanese Core Strategy, has delivered an annualized return of 9.7 percent since inception at the end of March 2005 and 23.3 percent over the past five years, outperforming the TOPIX total return index over the same periods. Man Numeric has 82.1 billion dollars, or about 13 trillion yen, in assets under management and has established Alpha GPT, a proprietary system in which AI autonomously develops, validates, and improves investment models.

Tomoya Asakura, President of SBI Global Asset Management, outlined a uniquely Japanese market vision in which crypto asset ETFs would be sold through banks and Japan Post Bank via publicly offered investment trusts. Asakura estimated that if just 1% of Japan’s roughly 2,400 trillion yen in household financial assets were directed into crypto asset ETFs, the market could surpass the entire US market in scale, and he urged the government to include such ETFs in existing asset-building schemes like NISA and iDeCo. The panel also featured Yuto Mizusaki of Nomura Asset Management, Keisuke Shiro of BlackRock Japan, and Takashi Kikuchi of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, who discussed a realistic rollout in Japan starting with simple products, drawing on the experience of individual investors driving the market in the US.

SBI Global Asset Management and DigiFT announced on July 15 the launch of the SBI Japan High Dividend Equity Strategy Token, or JX, for qualified and institutional investors in Singapore. JX is a token that provides blockchain-based access to a Japanese equity high-dividend fund strategy managed by SBI Asset Management, deployed on Solana. This marks the first instance of a listed equity strategy managed by a Japanese asset manager being brought on-chain through DigiFT's platform. On the same day, the two companies, together with Startale Group, also announced the start of a testnet proof of concept exploring the use of the yen-denominated stablecoin JPYSC, verifying the automation of subscription settlement and dividend payments for a Japanese equity fund on the Ethereum testnet.

SBI Global Asset Management, DigiFT Tech, and Startale Group have announced the launch of a testnet proof-of-concept to verify subscription settlement and dividend payments for a tokenized Japanese equity fund, with an eye toward future use of the yen-denominated stablecoin JPYSC. For subscription settlement, the process from investment product subscription through settlement to delivery will incorporate test tokens to confirm whether settlement risk can be reduced and 24/7/365 processing is possible. For dividend payments, smart contracts will calculate distribution amounts and send test tokens to target wallets, verifying automation of distribution operations and improved transparency. Through this trial, the three companies will explore the potential for fund delivery and settlement, which can currently take multiple business days, to be processed in seconds in the future. They also envision a mechanism where dividends received in stablecoins can be reinvested or utilized in other on-chain financial services.