Summary
SBI Holdings continues its strategy of writing solo, large-scale checks for institutional crypto infrastructure. The $76M EDX Markets Series C follows the $125M Gauntlet investment days earlier. EDX's OCC trust bank filing — seeking a national trust bank charter for crypto custody — represents a test case for whether federal regulators will grant bank-like status to crypto exchanges.
Key Points
- EDX investment: $76M Series C, sole investor (SBI Holdings)
- EDX backers: Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Virtu Financial, Charles Schwab
- EDX structure: Separate trading, custody, settlement with central clearinghouse — designed to cut counterparty risk
- OCC filing: EDX Trust, NA — de novo national trust bank in Chicago (filed March 25, 2026)
- SBI strategy: Yen-denominated stablecoins, RLUSD/USDC handling in Japan
- SBI portfolio: Gauntlet ($125M), EDX Markets ($76M), Morpho, Ripple, Circle
- EDX volume: ~$200M avg daily volume (Dec 2025)
- Previous round: Series B led by Pantera Capital and Sequoia Capital (Jan 2024, undisclosed)
- Key question: Will OCC grant a young crypto exchange a charter that custody banks normally spend decades earning?
- Broader context: SBI is not sprinkling venture money — it is backing specific pieces of market plumbing