SBI Holdings has announced that SBI Virtual Currencies (SBI VC) will exclusively list Ripple’s XRP token at launch.
First announced in October 2016, SBI Virtual Currencies will provide exchange services for digital currencies. The new company launched in beta on January 30, 2018 and will provide reliable exchange for both institutional customers and individual digital asset buyers in Japan.
Ripple said that XRP’s strong institutional use case and scalability (1,500 transactions per second), along with its growing demand in Japan, made the it a “natural fit” for the launch.
“Today’s decision to make XRP the primary digital asset of SBI Virtual Currencies shows the utility, efficiency, and scalability respected financial institutions around the world see in XRP. This is a critical step forward in our mission to build XRP liquidity and build an Internet of Value,” Ripple’s senior vice president of business development, Patrick Griffin, said.
In addition, SBI Virtual Currencies is looking to join the Ripple’s xRapid ecosystem, an enterprise-grade solution, to help institutions source liquidity for cross-border payments between Japan and the rest of the world. According to the official release, Ripple will eventually integrate SBI VC’s APIs so that xRapid users — payment providers and banks who are transferring money into and out of Japan — can convert XRP to JPY and JPY to XRP instantly through SBI VC.
