SBI Crypto Lending Service Adds Support for XRP

SBI Holdings, one of the top financial institutions in Japan, has been working with Ripple Labs on providing easy crypto access to its clients. Earlier today, the company confirmed that it had added support for XRP on its crypto lending service, SBI VC Trade.

XRP Welcome

Per a company announcement, users on the SBI VC Trader users can now earn interests by depositing their XRP holdings and providing capital for others to borrow. The announcement explained that borrowers could get tokens with interest rates as low as 0.1 percent annually.

Users can deposit anywhere between 1,000 XRP ($390 at press time) and 100,000 XRP ($39,000). Lending duration varies, but can go as high as 84 days.

SBI launched SBI VC Trade Lending as a new feature for its SBI VC Trade subsidiary in November 2020. At the time, the company explained that it would initially focus on Bitcoin, allowing users to lend their crypto to the company and get 1 percent in annual percentage yields.

The minimum lending value for Bitcoin is 0.1 BTC, while the max is pegged at 5 BTC. SBI VC Trade Lending will also have no account management fees or membership fees. While the service doesn’t charge for deposits in crypto or yen, it charges yen withdrawal fees.

SBI immediately claimed that it would add support for XRP and Ether soon. It is unclear whether Ether has been added, but the company seems ready to move forward with XRP support.

Ripple’s Got a Friend in SBI

The integration is coming at a rather inopportune time, with Ripple facing a lawsuit over alleged unregistered securities offering from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Filed last December, the suit alleged that the XRP token is indeed security, and that Ripple had violated the Securities Act of 1933 in its XRP Initial Coin Offering (ICO). 

So far, several firms have severed ties with Ripple and XRP. These include top exchanges like Bittrex and Coinbase and investment firms like Grayscale Investments and BItwise Asset Management. Not SBI Holdings, though.

SBI’s support for XRP isn’t surprising. The company has become one of Ripple Labs’ most prominent overseas partners, integrating the latter’s token in several of its initiatives.

Last May, SBI announced that it planned to bring XRP-powered ATMs to Japan. In its financial report, the company explained that it would integrate MoneyTap, a Ripple-powered settlement platform, with ATMs run by several banks across the country. With the integration, customers will be able to access XRP easier at ATMs – regardless of the banks they use. SBI also touted MoneyTap’s ability to save banks’ costs in operating ATMs.