Ripple and SBI Looking to Roll out XRP Liquidity Solution ‘This Year’

Ripple and its keenest Asian partner SBI are looking to push the token’s adoption on the continent – and new data shows that two East Asian nations are leading the way when it comes to interest in the XRP token.

Per Coin Post, SBI Ripple Asia, the two companies’ joint-venture project says that it plans to launch on-demand liquidity (ODL) service for its global RippleNet payments network using the XRP token in Asia before the end of the year if possible.

The media outlet quotes the joint-venture company as stating that SBI Ripple Asia is “currently working on limited trials and pilot projects” for ODL “with several companies.” The company says that its “progress” with the pilots is “on track.”

The company added that a rollout would follow at the end of the year at the earliest, and early 2021 at the latest.

Formerly named xRapid, ODL, says Ripple, lets financial institutions use XRP “to source liquidity on-demand and avoid pre-funding.”

The solution, says Ripple, will allow for real-time fiat transactions – avoiding the risk of sudden and unwelcome fluctuations in currency prices when making international payments. The company says that some 20 firms are already using ODL.

The news comes as Japanese media outlet Next Money reports that South Korea and Japan have the most interest in XRP globally. Per data compiled by the Blockchain Center website, the East Asian nations are followed by Ireland, Slovenia and Australia.

The same media outlet suggests that the fact that SBI – a major Japanese company – is so closely aligned with XRP has helped the token’s cause. SBI also has a strong presence in South Korea, where it runs a number of subsidiaries in conjunction with large South Korean firms.

However, the same report noted that recent data collected by the Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) – an association comprising the country’s licensed exchanges – illustrated that XRP may be losing much of its popularity to bitcoin (BTC).

A recent Twitter poll conducted by Line also showed BTC’s Japanese popularity was ahead of XRP by less than 1%.