SBI Backs Ripple XRP Ledger for NFT, Tokenization

SBI, the Japanese financial and crypto giant, has reaffirmed its backing of Ripple and its XRP ecosystem – claiming that its XRP Ledger network is a good fit for the non-fungible token (NFT) industry, as well as “other assets.”

In a briefing document authored by Yoshitaka Kitao, the SBI CEO and a member of the Ripple board, Kitao hinted that “extremely low transaction fees” on the Ripple network made XRP a better fit for NFT-related transactions than alternatives – presumably including the NFT network of choice, Ethereum (ETH).

He added:

“The XRP Ledger has the ability to tokenize not only XRP, but also a variety of other assets and has extremely low transaction fees that can be settled instantly with a very low environmental impact because it does not use mining and has decentralized trading capabilities.”

He opined that tokenization “could be an opportunity for the XRP Ledger,” noting that XRP community members have “already proposed a basic standard for issuing NFTs on the XRP Ledger.”

However, he added, Ripple’s RippleX team has “proposed a model for NFTs in May that can provide richer functionality.” This model, Kitao claimed, “will be formally adopted after community review and voting.”

Kitao admitted that NFT progress may involve developing interoperability solutions, both in the blockchain world and the conventional sphere, remarking:

“Achieving impact at-scale across so many asset types will require the interaction of different blockchains and existing Internet and financial infrastructures.”

The Ripple-SBI bond remains firm as ever. Kitao has publicly backed Ripple in its protracted struggle with American regulators and has paid out shareholders in one of its subsidiaries using XRP. New customers of its SBI VC Trade crypto exchange have also been given free XRP tokens. The firms also co-run the SBI-Ripple Asia cross-border remittance initiative.

The firm also has a foothold in markets in South East Asia and Europe. In the document, Kitao explained that the SBI Group “has begun preparations for the creation of Japan’s first digital asset bank,” and reminded the business world that it was working with Sygnum on plants to establish the Osaka Digital Exchange and the SIX Digital Exchange in Switzerland.
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Learn more:
– SEC Asks Court to Let it See Evidence of Ripple’s ‘XRP Lobbying’
– FX Branch of Japanese Giant SBI Planning Crypto Move – Report
– Japanese Pro-Crypto MP Spells Out Vision of Crypto, NFT Regulatory Future