Ripple, a San Francisco-based fintech business, is expanding into the Far East with its latest cooperation in Japan.  On April 30, Ripple announced a collaboration with HashKey Group, expanding its engagement with financial services behemoth SBI Group.

A joint venture has been formed between HashKey DX, a specialized consulting company based in Tokyo, and the HashKey Group. The aim of this partnership is to introduce enterprise solutions for XRP Ledger (XRPL) to the Japanese market. The collaboration will also include the provision of supply chain financing solutions in Japan. Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of the firm, shared this information in a post on X.

XRPL Adoption

The supply chain technology will be built on Ripple’s layer-1 blockchain, XRP Ledger. As per the announcement, SBI Group companies will be the first in Japan to utilize this supply chain financing solution.

Andy Dan from HashKey DX explained that they found the XRPL blockchain infrastructure to be the perfect platform to develop their established supply chain finance solution. Emi Yoshikawa, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Ripple, highlighted that the partnership showcases a mutual goal to advance blockchain technology and provide real value to businesses in Japan.

HashKey Group launched blockchain supply chain solutions in 2019, which have received widespread acceptance in mainland China. At present, there are more than 4,000 registered companies, including 23 banks and 4,300 suppliers. These companies have generated a total trade volume of over $7 billion.

Strategic Business Innovator Group, or SBI Holdings, is a Tokyo-based financial services corporation. The company was the first remittance provider in Japan to use XRP as an intermediary to transmit cash from Japan to the Philippines in 2017, and has had a long history with Ripple. In November 2023, SBI Holdings announced a $663 million fund to support Web3 and fintech firms in the region. 

XRP Outlook

Ripple’s native cryptocurrency, XRP, did not react to the news and was trading 1.7% higher on the day at $0.514 as of writing. The cross-border payments asset has been trading sideways for the better part of the last two years while the company fights a legal battle with the US SEC. XRP reached a peak of $0.734 on March 12, 2024, but has since fallen 30%. Furthermore, it is down a terrible 85% from its all-time high of $3.40 set more than six years ago in 2018.

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