SBI Holdings, a Japanese financial giant, announced in June that it was launching a crypto exchange after months of delay due to security concerns. The service will go by the name VCTRADE and at the time of the launch was only open for users who had pre-registered before October 2017.
But, as promised in the original announcement, the company has now availed its services to all Japanese citizen aged between 20 and 70.
The crypto platform started off by trading Ripple’s XRP token. It, later on, added support for Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash
SBI has been working in collaboration with the Ripple platform. Using its money remittance technology which uses the distributed ledger technology to support cross-border payments.
More Investments Coming
SBI Holdings first got involved with cryptocurrencies in October of 2016. In a bid to form the first state-backed crypto exchange, It formed SBI Virtual Currencies. A crypto exchange which was the first backed by a major financial institution in Japan. In the last weeks, SBI has made more significant investments in crypto exchanges.
Then in September 2017 SBI completed registering the business with Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA). But, in February this year announced that opening of the exchange would be delayed because of security concerns after the Coincheck hack. Coincheck lost over $500 million making it the largest hack in history. The decision was taken to ensure the platform beefed up its security.
Last month, SBI Holdings formed a partnership with OneConnect, a Chinese fintech firm which is also a subsidiary of Ping An.
The move is set to help SBI expand its global reach and create the necessary conditions which would revive the crypto market. Â OneConnect is one of the largest SaaS (Software As A Service) platforms in China.
OneConnect’s fintech solution service targets Small and medium-sized banks. The platform so far serves 468 banks. It also provides its services to 1,890 financial institutions in the country and serves banks based in Hong Kong and ASEAN Countries (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).
Earlier this March, SBI Virtual currencies canceled a partnership with Huobi, a crypto exchange. SBI had planned to use Huobi’s technology and financial resources to launch VCTRADE.
John is a finance and technology journalist with a growing interest in cryptocurrencies. Writing is his passion and when he’s not writing he’s listening to the Beatles.
