Leading Japanese Financial Firm SBI Holdings Rolls Out Crypto Lending Services
A subsidiary of SBI Holdings said it's launched a service allowing users to ‘lend’ bitcoin to the firm and earn an interest at the rate of 1% annually in return.
SBI's digital assets subsidiary will lead a round that will have raised around $30 million for the Swiss firm over six months.
SBI founder and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said his firm would turn the planned crypto venture into a core source of profitability.
SBI's support of XRP is a sign of the digital token's continued strong fan base in Japan.
The exchange reportedly planned by SBI and SMFG is expected to be the first of its kind in Japan.
The SBI Holdings statement refers to a research article by Sadakazu Osaki of the Nomura Research Institute indicating that under Japanese law XRP is a "cryptocurrency asset" and not a security.