A recent survey has revealed that Japanese investors are choosing to invest in Ripple’s XRP about the world’s flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
XRP via Bitcoin and Ethereum
Unlike therapy Ripple and the XRP token received in the US, Japan seems more hospitable to the crypto assets, according to a research paper by the Department of Economics and Finance of the City University of Hong-Kong.
According to the report, XRP is favored over the largest cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization. Bitcoin and ether. It referred to a survey conducted by Japanese crypto exchange BITMAX, where 25% of the 1,498 respondents who took part in the survey chose XRP as their cryptocurrency of choice, while 26% and 9% chose Bitcoin and Ethereum respectively.
While this research can be considered insufficient to prove Japanese investors’ preference for the XRP token, it suggests that the token has quite a following in the country. Interestingly, XRP enjoyed the highest trading volume on the spot market in February last year, with “nearly 1.36 billion units” traded during that period.
The report attributed Japan’s fondness for the token to the country’s customs and “the confidence that Japan’s largest venture capital fund has in Ripple.” The venture capital firm in question is SBI Holdings, with the company being one of Ripple’s earliest partners. SBI is said to have invested almost $300 million in Ripple in 2017.
SBI Holdings a “key driver of Ripple’s success”
The report labels SBI holdings as the “key driver of Ripple’s success” in Japan. This claim may not be far-fetched, especially considering SBI’s role in helping Ripple break into the Japanese market.
In 2016, the financial services company partnered with Ripple to create this SBI Ripple Asia with the aim to provide cross-border payment services to banks in the Asian region. Using Ripple’s distributed ledger technology (DLT), these banks can process cross-border transactions in “40 currencies and more than 70 countries.”
SBI Ripple is said to serve banks in countries such as Japan, China, South Korea and other Southeast Asian countries. This move undoubtedly paved the way for Ripple and its XRP token to penetrate the Asian market (particularly Japan) early enough, especially when non-cash payments were on the rise in those countries.
Ripple and XRP adoption in the Asian region is also expected to grow further as SBI Remit (a subsidiary under SBI Holdings) recently expanded the SBI Ripple Asia partnership with the introduction of a XRP-based international money transfer service for banks in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The move is in line with Ripple’s goal to disrupt the global financial system, as its crypto assets will be used as a bridge currency for foreigners looking to send money to their families back home. Impressively, Ripple’s Ledger can process these transactions faster and cheaper than the traditional financial system.
Token price resting at $0.49 | Source: XRPUSD on Tradingview.com
Featured image from Investopedia, chart from Tradingview.com