Japanese securities giant and Ripple partner SBI has recruited four more pro gamers to its SBI eSports roster – with three teams so far all agreeing to receive their salaries in the XRP token.
Per an official release, the latest batch of recruits is a four-member Apex Legends team. Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale-style game developed by American gaming giant EA.
And all four recruits have signed deals that will see them compensated for their turnouts for SBI eSports in XRP, rather than fiat yen.
SBI eSports was launched earlier this year, and appears to be part of a wider strategy to drive up interest in crypto among younger Japanese people. From the outset, SBI announced its intention to pay players in crypto when possible.
The eSports franchise’s main sponsor is SBI’s crypto exchange, SBI VC Trade – and players will wear SBI VC Trade insignia during competitive league and cup matches.
The four new recruits were named as HaRu, P1NKI, Wasuo and Leila – the latter of whom claimed to be a “long-term crypto owner” who is “happy to be involved” with a team that pays players in tokens, rather than JPY.
SBI eSports announced that “The annual salary for the four players will be paid in XRP in accordance with the wishes of each individual and the terms of our sponsorship contract with SBI VC Trade.”
SBI has previously unveiled Super Smash Bros and FIFA teams – and last month announced that all member of both of these units would also be accepting their salaries in XRP.
SBI’s CEO Yoshitaka Kitao is a member of the Ripple board.
At the time of writing (15:57 UTC, November 6), XRP trades at USD 0.257 and is up by almost 5% in a day. The price is also up by 3.4% in a month, trimming its losses over the past 12 months to less than 12%.
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