SBI VC Trade, a crypto-focused subsidiary of Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, is set to inherit the accounts and assets of embattled crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin.
The transfer will take place on March 8, 2025, marking the culmination of DMM Bitcoin’s liquidation process after a devastating $305 million hack in May 2024.
Liquidation and transfer process
In a December 25 noticeSBI VC said customer accounts would be ready on the transfer date and would not need to register again but would instead be transferred automatically by the company. Fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies held by former DMM users will be transferred to SBI, with the company inheriting reports of all transactions carried out on the defunct exchange.
The Tokyo-based company initially offered 24 virtual assets to trade on its platform, but its acquisition of DMM Bitcoin will add 14 additional cryptocurrencies to its books, including Tron (TRX), The Sandbox (SAND), Algorand (ALGO) and Fabricant (MKR).
Additionally, as part of the deal, SBI will take over all leveraged trading pairs previously offered by DMM, except those it already offers. The company also clarified that it will not transfer any open positions in leveraged trading.
According to the notice, stock staking will be automatically triggered, with customers holding Ethereum (ETH), Avalanche (AVAX), Oasys (OAS), Flare (FLR), and Hedera (HBAR) on DMM eligible for staking on SBI. They are expected to receive their first staking reward in April 2025 if they continue to hold the assets.
Fallout Hack
DMM Bitcoin announced its decision to shut down operations following months of recovery efforts following a failed multi-million dollar attack in late May. The platform lost more than 4,500 BTC, valued at around $305 million, in what is the second-largest cryptocurrency breach in Japan after another exchange, Coincheck, which lost $523 million worth of NEM tokens during an incident in 2018.
The DMM hack is believed to have been carried out by threat actors linked to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), known as TradeTraitor. In July, investigators revealed that more than $35 million stolen from the exchange had been laundered through the infamous Cambodian online marketplace Huione Garantie.
At the time, pseudonymous detective ZachXBT compared the laundering techniques to those used by another DPRK-linked company, the notorious Lazarus Group.
Shortly after its operation, DMM immediately committed to restoring the health of affected customers. However, even after borrowing 50 million yen to repay users, the damage to its operations proved too great, leading to the decision to transfer all assets to SBI VC Trade.
The company confirmed the acquisition in a Dec. 2 announcement, insisting it would work to ensure a smooth transition for customers.
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