San Francisco-based fintech firm Ripple is branching further into the Far East with its latest partnership in Japan.
On April 30, Ripple announced a partnership with HashKey Group, furthering its collaboration with financial services giant SBI Group.
The joint venture with HashKey DX, a Tokyo-based specialized consulting company of the HashKey Group, aims to introduce XRP Ledger (XRPL) enterprise solutions to the Japanese market.
HashKey DX will deploy supply chain finance solutions to Japan through the partnership, which was highlighted by company CEO Brad Garlinghouse in a post on X.
XRPL Adoption
The supply chain tech will be built upon Ripple’s layer-1 blockchain XRP Ledger. SBI Group companies will become the first Japanese corporations to utilize this supply chain finance solution, according to the announcement.
“The XRPL was the ideal blockchain infrastructure for us to build our proven supply chain finance solution,” commented Andy Dan from HashKey DX.
Emi Yoshikawa, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Ripple, added that the collaboration exemplifies a shared commitment to “advancing blockchain technology and delivering tangible value to businesses” in Japan.
HashKey Group launched blockchain supply chain solutions in 2019 and has seen significant adoption in mainland China.
There are currently more than 4,000 companies registered, including 23 banks and 4,300 suppliers, and the total trade amount recorded is more than $7 billion.
Strategic Business Innovator Group, also known as SBI Holdings, is a Tokyo-based financial services company.
The firm has a long-standing partnership with Ripple that dates back to 2017, when it became the first remittance services provider in Japan to use XRP as the intermediary to transfer remittance funds from Japan to the Philippines.
In November 2023, SBI Holdings launched a $663 million fund to boost Web3 and fintech startups in the region. In the same month, the company collaborated with stablecoin issuer Circle to boost USDC adoption in Japan.
XRP Outlook
Ripple’s native token, XRP, did not react to the news and was trading around 1.7% higher on the day at $0.514 at the time of writing.
The cross-border payments asset has been trading sideways for the best part of the past two years as the company remains in a legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
XRP hit a 2024 high of $0.734 on March 12 but has since retreated 30% since then. Furthermore, it remains down a painful 85% from its all-time high of $3.40 more than six years ago in 2018.