Singapore: Commercial Activity

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## Commercial Activity SBI Holdings completed a majority-stake acquisition of Coinhako, encompassing Hako Technology Pte Ltd, a MAS Major Payment Institution digital-payment-token licensee, and Alpha Hako Ltd, a BVI-registered capital-markets-services provider, acquired via SBI Holdings' subsidiary SBI Ventures Asset Pte Ltd. The transaction completed on 16 July 2026, following MAS's approval of the change-in-control application — an approval process that took roughly five months from the deal's first disclosure in February 2026. This is a confirmed, regulator-cleared commercial transaction rather than a pending or speculative deal, and it demonstrates MAS's change-in-control review process functioning actively for a cross-border acquisition of a licensed digital-asset entity by a foreign (Japanese) financial institution. This transaction occurred against a backdrop of broader commercial momentum in Singapore's blockchain and digital-asset sector during 2026, with Southeast Asian blockchain equity funding reaching approximately US$680 million for the year, of which Singapore accounted for an estimated 82.5% of the region's historical cumulative funding. The Coinhako transaction is consistent with this pattern of sustained commercial and investment activity in Singapore-domiciled digital-asset infrastructure. ## Outlook The Coinhako transaction sets a procedural precedent for how MAS reviews foreign acquisitions of licensed Singapore digital-asset entities, a process likely to see further use given the scale of commercial activity already evident in Singapore's blockchain-equity funding environment. Future change-in-control transactions in this space will test the consistency and timeliness of the review process established through this precedent.