Japan’s SBI Group has made another move to bring XRP to the mainstream as SBI Africa’s cross-border e-commerce platform, SBI Motor Japan, has started to accept payments in cryptocurrencies.
Announced on Monday, the e-commerce platform in Japan is accepting payments in two crypto assets, Bitcoin and XRP. Additionally, it is the first such platform in the country to accept XRP as payment.
SBI is a major Japanese conglomerate. The mentioned cross-border e-commerce platform provides information on used automobiles to emerging countries around the world and facilitates the export of around 5,000 vehicles annually.
The primary target markets of the platform are Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and other African countries, Ireland, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
“Crypto asset remittances use the blockchain (distributed ledger), so even if the banking system stops functioning, as long as the Internet is operational, remittances can continue to be used without being affected by the failure of an exchange, etc,” the announcement stated.
“This is also highly regarded, and is spreading as an alternative to traditional remittance methods. In anticipation of the growing demand for remittances using crypto assets, we plan to increase the number of currencies that can be used for settlement in the future.”
Moreover, the platform confirmed that it will use the services of SBI VCTrade to settle the crypto assets. In addition, it will ensure anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing measures as well as conduct appropriate screening and monitoring of all involved parties.
Promoting XRP
SBI is one of the key partners of Ripple . The two companies are running a joint venture to promote the use of XRP in Asia. Furthermore, the SBI Group is incentivizing its shareholders with free XRP rewards.
Meanwhile, XRP is trading at $0.56 a piece as of press time, according to Coinmarketcap.com, which is more than 83 percent lower than the peak value of the crypto achieved in January 2018.
