SBI Holdings, a major Japanese financial conglomerate, today announced a strategic joint venture with crypto infrastructure firm Startale Group to launch an onchain trading platform for tokenized stocks and real-world assets.

According to the press release, the platform will leverage SBI's financial ecosystem and Startale's blockchain infrastructure to address "critical market gaps" in traditional tokenized stock offerings. 

The upcoming platform is said to offer round-the-clock trading of tokenized stocks, faster cross-border settlements and fractional ownership, designed to suit the needs of global customers. The platform will also integrate tokenized stocks with DeFi protocols, the release said.

Other features include advanced account abstraction, institutional custody, and real-time compliance monitoring of international regulations.

The business alliance is set to establish and operate two joint venture companies: one focused on core technology development and the other on brand and business expansion.

"We believe that the tokenized stock revolution is the largest opportunity and onchain trading is the next frontier," said Sota Watanabe, Founder of Startale Group. "While traditional markets remain closed 70% of the time, our platform will enable continuous, programmable trading of tokenized stocks, including US and Japanese native stocks."

SBI and Startale have not specified a launch date for the new platform. The Block has reached out for more information.

This development is part of a growing trend in which institutions are expanding their tokenized offerings, with the tokenized asset market projected to grow as large as $18.9 trillion by 2033, according to a joint report from Ripple and the Boston Consulting Group. 

Last month, Robinhood tapped the Arbitrum network to deploy its tokenized stocks, while crypto exchange Kraken announced the expansion of its xStocks offerings onto Tron earlier this week.