SBI Expands Crypto Lending Services Adding XRP

SBI VC Trade, the cryptocurrency unit of major Japanese conglomerate SBI Holdings, has extended its digital currency lending support to XRP tokens, the company announced on Thursday.

The service will be offered under the VC Trade Lending and will allow XRP holders to earn interest by depositing their holdings with the platforms. SBI launched its lending services last November with only Bitcoin support.

“VC Trade Lending is a service that allows customers to rent out their crypto assets to the Company and receive usage fees according to the quantity and duration of the crypto assets,” SBI earlier explained.

With XRP, the platform will allow deposits ranging from 1,000 tokens to 100,000 tokens, and the lending period will be for 84 days. The usage fee for lending has been set at 0.1 percent per annum.

A Major Partner of Ripple

SBI is an early adopter of XRP, and the Japanese giant also runs a joint venture with Ripple to promote the usage of XRP tokens in the Asian nations. The addition of XRP to the lending services is significant, especially at a time when Ripple is facing backlash from the United States regulator.

After the lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Ripple, many cryptocurrency exchanges and companies parted their ways with Ripple and its XRP token. However, SBI stood firm in its support for XRP.

SBI is heavily invested in cryptocurrency services. The conglomerate expanded its crypto portfolio by acquiring local exchange Tao Tao last year. It also launched its first security token offering (STO) by allocating shares of its esports games arm, SBI e-Sports.

Meanwhile, XRP prices are swinging a lot on the exchange with sudden pump and dump by the traders. The token prices went as low as $0.18 apiece after the SEC lawsuit announcement and recently spiked to $0.72, before settling at around $0.38.