According to CRYPTIMI, a media product that caters to the ever-growing crypto and blockchain world, the Japan-based financial giant, Strategic Business Innovator (SBI) Holdings announced that customers of its new crypto exchange VC Trade will be able to trade virtual currencies come March 2019.
Despite the fact that VC Trade is a startup exchange platform, the SBI Group already serves a customer base of 23.47 million people, all of whom will have access to the new exchange. SBI clients are already able to make deposits as well as withdrawals of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP). Additionally, SBI CEO Yoshitaka Kitao announced the exchange will be supporting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) when it launches.
Japan adoption continues apace
In a recent tweet, Kitao said; “SBI Virtual currency Exchange VC Trade, Exchange-style cryptocurrency trading available from March-now you can buy and sell XRP, BTC, ETH, BCH in the Sales office format from the virtual currency.’’ Before this, withdrawals were restricted and users only had the option of using a ‘designated wallet’.
The financial service headquartered in Tokyo, released a document on its website recently stating that they are ready to roll out crypto services and onboard users from their 23.47 million customer base. According to the document,
“At the launch of full-scale services, expecting customer inflow from the SBI Group’s customer base of 23.47 million, specifically, SBI SECURITIES with approx. 4.26 million accounts, SBI Sumishin Net Bank with approx. 3.21 million accounts, and SBI Liquidity Market including SBI FXTRADE, with approx. 1.05 million accounts.”
SBI and Ripple Partnership
Ripple is a U.S based company that aims to disrupt the banking and financial sectors through its blockchain based payment solutions. The platform has over 200 partnerships with various banks and financial players across the globe. Also, Ripple is leveraging its proprietary products like xVia, xCurrent, and xRapid to process payments in a fast, secure and transparent way compared to traditional methods.
The merger between the two companies led to the establishment of a joint venture called the SBI Ripple Asia Co., Ltd. The main goal towards this is so as to provide a next generation payment platform powered by the distribute ledger technology, to financial institutions and payment transfer providers in Asia.
“XRP is faster, cheaper and more scalable than any other digital asset. I strongly believe it will become the global standard in digital currencies.” –A statement from the SBI Group’s CEO, Kitao.
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