Despite The SEC Lawsuit: Japanese Giant SBI Adds XRP to Its Crypto Lending Services

Japanese giant SBI Group will include a new addition to its crypto lending service via its subsidiary VC Trade. Apart from the other options, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), the organization’s customers will be able to deposit XRP to earn interest as well.

Adding XRP to the List of Bitcoin and Ethereum Lending 

Japanese giant SBI Group has announced it will include XRP in its list of lending services. The company, which started the lending endeavor in November 2020, will provide clients with the service via its subsidiary SBI VC Trade.

According to the recent announcement, holders of the fourth-largest cryptocurrency could deposit XRP to earn interest. The amounts that clients could deposit range from 1,000 to 100,000 tokens, while the lending period would be 84 calendar days.

SBI’s subsidiary, VC Trade, launched its cryptocurrency lending endeavor in November 2020. Initially, the company body offered and supported only Bitcoin. Back then, the Japanese giant said that its clients’ deposits could range between a minimum of 0.1 BTC to 5 BTC.

After lending their BTC holdings on the platform, the clients would supposedly earn an interest rate of 1% with taxes included. As an addition, SBI pointed out that VC Trade Lending would charge fees just for withdrawals in Japanese yen. Cryptocurrency and yen deposits, as well as account management or annual memberships, would not be subject to fees.

SBI was among the few to not turn its back on Ripple and its native crypto asset XRP after the latest US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges. In a December 2020 announcement, the firm pointed out that Ripple’s XRP is considered a “cryptocurrency asset” and not security by Japanese law.

“XRP is widely traded by crypto asset exchange companies in Japan, but under Japanese law, XRP is a “crypto asset” under the Funds Settlement Law, and it is not applicable to “securities” under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, which requires the submission of a securities notification form to the Financial Services Agency for offering or sale,” reads the statement.

Diving Further into Crypto Services

SBI Group has been quite vigorous in implementing projects connected more or less with cryptocurrencies. During the last couple of years, the company has shown an apparent interest in the digital asset environment, starting several endeavors to back that.

As CryptoPotato reported, in December 2019, SBI launched its long-planned in-house crypto exchange, which had gone through some delays the previous years.

Additionally, the holding managed to execute another significant crypto venture. In December 2020, the company completed the acquisition deal with UK-based crypto liquidity provider B2C2.

The operation went through its subsidiary SBI Financial Services after a strategic partnership with B2C2 six months earlier and a previous acquisition of a $30 million minority stake at the firm as an initial leap into future cooperation.