Hogan Lovells advise Crypto Trading Firm B2C2 on its sale to SBI Holdings

Press releases | 16 December 2020

London, 16 December 2020 – International law firm Hogan Lovells has advised the founders and majority shareholders of B2C2 Ltd, the trading counterparty of choice in the institutional crypto markets, on its sale to SBI Financial Services, the subsidiary of SBI Holdings (“SBI”).The transaction follows SBI Financial Services’ agreement to take a minority stake in B2C2 in July this year.

This transaction will see B2C2 providing crypto liquidity to SBI as it grows its crypto offering to millions of existing customers, while B2C2 will tap into SBI’s resources and balance sheet, to help it launch the next big, full prime brokerage for both crypto and other asset classes.

The Hogan Lovells team was led by Corporate M&A partner Richard Diffenthal with assistance from senior associate Charles Jemmett, as well as partners Karen Hughes and Michael Thomas, senior associate Chris Hyde and associates Scott Prior and Mark Orton.

Commenting, Richard Diffenthal said: "We have been working with Max and the B2C2 team for a number years and were delighted to support them on this exciting deal which will see the firm into its next stage of growth and become a key player in the emerging prime brokerage crypto market.”

He added, "B2C2 have been at the forefront of the professionalisation of the crypto market and the fact that significant players in the institutional space [such as SBI] are moving into crypto at scale is a further indication of the evolution of the market as it becomes more widely recognised and accepted as a key part of a diversified investment portfolio.”