Author: Staff

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Business

MARA Crypto Exchange gets a $23 million boost.

A group photo of the MARA team.

Pan-African crypto exchange, MARA, has raised $23 million from investors to fund its mission to sit at the intersection of the emerging government and retail-led crypto adoption in Africa. 

The funds were raised through equity and token sale from investors including Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research (FTX), Distributed Global, TQ Ventures, DIGITAL, Nexo, Huobi Ventures, Day One Ventures, Infinite Capital, DAO Jones and about 100 other crypto investors.

MARA intends to become the go-to network for developers looking to build crypto and blockchain solutions for Africa with the launch of a number of products including a custodial retail crypto wallet, a pro-exchange for professional traders and a layer-one blockchain. 

The startup will first launch in Kenya and Nigeria with the retail app in July before expanding to other African countries. The pro-exchange will come shortly after and the company says the MARA chain is expected to go live in the fourth quarter of this year. 

In a market with a number of heavyweights already involved, MARA will have to compete with the reigning, well-funded market leaders including Binance and Crypto.com as well as local players like Yellow Card. 

These existing exchanges offer a wide range of services needed for crypto use in Africa but have faced resistance in the form of regulatory red-tape that they have had to innovate around to continue operating.

Many African countries forbid local financial institutions from doing business with cryptocurrency companies, making it difficult to develop on-ramp and off-ramp solutions on local payment rails. In Uganda for example, the Bank of Uganda in late April denounced cryptocurrencies as reported here.

Many crypto exchanges serving African users have built peer-to-peer trading systems for on- and off-ramp purposes. Others use alternative means such as gift cards to help users get in and out of crypto.

MARA co-founder and CEO, Chi Nnadi believes that his company is better positioned to work with regulators from its product development process to help bring blockchain’s numerous use-cases to reality in a scalable way.

According to Nnadi, building a crypto exchange involves interacting with regulators, who are at a critical point where they have to understand how to adopt crypto and how they are going to regulate it.

“One of my core competencies is sitting with regulators, understanding their pain points, and understanding how their life has changed dramatically in the last 20 years with tech adoption. We are aligning ourselves as a point of education for regulators to educate them in the same way we’re educating the masses about the benefits of blockchain technology,” Nnadi said. 

For Nnadi, MARA exists to plug the gap between regulators who are held back in their thinking by 20th-century systems and the young population looking at new technologies in order to build new scalable and sustainable structures. 

Using an example of how MARA intends to work with governments to help boost crypto and blockchain adoption, Nnadi shared, 

“We’re running hackathons on digital ownership of patient records. These are the type of solutions that a 25-year-old blockchain engineer can build. But if there isn’t that sort of through-line or a bridge point to the government to healthcare organizations, it makes it harder for these use cases to just scale.”  
Without going into details, Nnadi hinted at conversations to aid crypto adoption in a number of African countries that are all at different regulation stages including Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and the Central African Republic which has been in the headlines since its announcement of Bitcoin adoption.

Categories
Business

Jambo gets a $30 million injection for Web3 super app

The last year has seen thousands of lives transformed due to an uptake in Web3 initiatives, especially in Southeast Asia where both smartphone penetration and unemployment rates are substantially high. 

The success stories of those who have found alternative income in crypto are what inspired siblings Alice and James Zhang to pursue a cryptocurrency startup venture that has come to be known as “Jambo”. 

Jambo is a Swahili word meaning ‘hello’ and to the siblings who are natives of the Democratic Republic of Congo, this venture will help usher Africa into the Web3 space as a hub for the continent’s entire digital economy.

The company was started 6 months ago and while many Web3 efforts in Africa are focussed on either gaming or financial services, Jambo co-founder and CEO, James Zhang says they hope to become “the super app of Africa” similar to what WeChat has done in China over the last decade. 

WeChat is currently one of the world’s most popular social media messaging apps and is similar to WhatsApp while also boasting a user base of over 1.2 billion people around the globe. 

The Jambo mission is an ambitious one but to that end, the company revealed to Forbes the completion of a $30 million Series A funding round led by crypto-focused venture firm Paradigm. This is Paradigm’s first investment in the continent. 

Jambo is looking at a massive market opportunity which according to blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis, begins with the 70% of sub-Saharan Africans under the age of 30 that have an ever-growing smartphone penetration while providing the third-fastest cryptocurrency economy. 

Jambo is testing about a dozen play-to-earn games including the popular Axie Infinity that could meet local data bandwidth among other considerations but in order to become a super app, the startup will have to become a one-stop-shop for everything crypto.  

The company is thus also working on a non-custodial wallet, which will allow users to send and swap cryptocurrencies as well as yearn yield on their holdings. With over 30,000 signups already locked in, the wallet is to be launched in the third quarter of this year. 

The Jambo wallet is being developed on Polygon, a prominent platform used to connect and grow Ethereum-compatible projects and blockchains but Zhang emphasizes there are still many technicalities to be resolved first. 

The Jambo CEO highlights that the details of Jambo’s token which will likely hit the market along with the main product have to be addressed. Aside from developing the product suite, these funds are helping the company expand its geographic footprint on the continent. 

Jambo is also partnering with thousands of internet cafes to improve student access to computers and high-speed internet. In the past months, the founders have gathered a 100-member team and opened offices in 15 countries including Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa with Jambo ambassadors in these countries offering 10-week courses on Web3. 

Introducing Jambo’s Ambassador | First Kenyan Ambassador

The firm hopes to establish a presence in 15 additional cities by the end of the year to have over 200,000 active community members. Jambo is further launching the AfricaDAO investment fund to index crypto development on the continent.

Categories
Amber Group Business

Amber Group Announces Q3 2022 Launch Of Openverse, The Gateway Into The Metaverse

SINGAPORE, 11 May 2022 — Amber Group, the leading global digital asset platform, today announced its entry into the metaverse with the launch of Openverse, a Web3 enablement platform for creators, brands and businesses. A culmination of Amber Group’s multi-disciplinary expertise in digital architecture and blockchain-native infrastructure, Openverse serves as a gateway to the metaverse, empowering Web2 creators, brands and businesses with tools and services to transition into Web3. 

With the metaverse economy projected to reach $13 trillion by 2030, Openverse marks Amber Group’s venture into Web3 community building. Due to launch in Q3 2022, Openverse is a significant milestone in Amber Group’s plans to aid businesses, industries and societies as they transition into Web3. As a one-stop platform, Openverse will create entry points into the metaverse by delivering end-to-end creative and digital infrastructures for creators, brands and businesses.

“Digital assets are the first step in realizing a decentralized future where people are empowered to create and connect with online communities, unlocking new digital experiences. While there has been a lot of interest in the metaverse, it remains largely conceptual. With Openverse, we are taking a solid step towards creating this digital reality for all. Backed by our expertise and partnerships within the digital asset ecosystem, Openverse is at the forefront of onboarding businesses and communities into the metaverse, unlocking the true potential of decentralization,” said Amber Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Wu. 

Openverse is designed to be a Web3 enablement platform, supported by leading real-time 3D rendering technology to create an experiential digital world for all users. The platform will be accessible on mobile, desktop and VR platforms, and will come equipped with features such as real-time content interaction, gameplay, customizable digital avatars and an NFT valuation system. Openverse will also leverage Amber Group’s flagship digital asset platform, WhaleFin, for its crypto financial services, creating synergies with the company’s thriving  consumer business line to expand the reach of its digital asset services. 

“We are excited to launch Openverse, and convert the possibilities of the metaverse into reality in the next few months. As we develop a gateway for everyone to journey into the metaverse together, we are also building a strong line-up of partnerships with gaming studios, sporting brands, digital artists and creators in an effort to bridge the gap between physical and virtual economies. Not only will this encourage more Web2 users to migrate into the metaverse, it will also herald a new era for digital assets worldwide,” said Openverse’s Chief Executive Officer, Jo Xu.

-END- 

Media Contact

Stella Wang

pr@ambergroup.io

About Amber Group

Amber Group is a leading digital asset platform operating globally with offices in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The firm provides a full range of digital asset services spanning investing, financing, and trading. Amber Group is backed by prominent investors including Sequoia, Temasek, Paradigm, Tiger Global, Dragonfly, Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, and Blockchain.com. 

For more information, please visit www.ambergroup.io.

Categories
Technology

Bundle Africa to extend crypto trading with a new web app

Cash and crypto social trading platform, Bundle Africa has unveiled a web application aimed at giving its users more access to crypto trading as well as other online trading services in a launch that coincided with the company’s two-year anniversary.

The Bundle platform is on an upward trajectory and its two years have seen it grow from 3 traded assets at the time of launch to over 80 currently with a user base of over 700,000 people across Nigeria and Ghana. 

Bundle believes the addition of the app will make it one of the easiest trading platforms to use in Africa and it has said it built the app with its users’ needs in mind. 

Having dealt with a lot of regulatory pushback, Bundle CEO, Mr Emmanuel Babalola, said that the company has been able to cater to its users’ needs through the integration of the P2P payments platform called Cashlink which has helped them onramp and offramp users into crypto. 

With over a million transactions in the first seven months of operation, Babalola attributes the company’s success to the efficient settlement system used by Cashlink that mitigates fraud from either side of the transaction. 

“With the aim of helping users mitigate loss during periods of prolonged price decline, we built simple tools such as Bundle Leveraged Token (BLVTs) series which give users the ability to leverage on a cryptocurrency to either multiply the loss or profit on an asset,” the Bundle CEO added. 

This initiative intends to promote the wider adoption of cryptocurrencies while making trading more straightforward and convenient for as many people as possible. Mr Babalola pointed out that crypto services should be offered on multiple platforms with all users in mind.

Bundle will be expanding their operations across Africa through this quarter and this growth will be paired with implementations to involve more social finance putting the company a step closer to its evolved mission to become a social finance app making crypto accessible to everyone. 

On security, Babalola said, “We are also set to release a 2FA security feature to further protect our users. Bundle users are implored to ensure that any dealings on Twitter and Instagram are on their official handles. They wouldn’t ask you to click on any link or share your OTP with them”.

The Bundle app itself has recently been suffering a lot of downtime and glitches which the CEO addressed in a blog post highlighting the cause and steps that have been taken to resolve the issue with the hopes of rebuilding the trust of their users.

With the release of this web app, Bundle Africa intends to give users an alternative way to trade and stay true to its customer-centred business model. New and existing users as well as visitors of the site will be able to learn and stay informed with the latest news from Bundle.

Categories
Business

A cyberattack has hit the OpenSea NFT Discord channel

With so much hype about NFTs and their potential, an increasing number of people are flocking to NFT trading platforms to learn the ropes as early adopters. However, as a relatively new concept, users are vulnerable to early adopter errors and attacks. For the second time in a row, NFT trading platform OpenSea has become a victim of both.

A new wave of cybercrime has targeted the company just three months after the initial incident. The main website is safe this time, however, the OpenSea Discord channel has been compromised. Scammers used a bot to post phony information about a YouTube-OpenSea alliance that will deliver free NFT products and minting, luring visitors to a phishing site.

Users who fell for the ruse and clicked the false giveaway link gave the attacker access to their non-fungible art collections. The total value of the 13 artworks stolen by the con artist is $18,000. It’s unknown how the hacker gained access to the OpenSea Discord channel, but the business is actively investigating the crime. This isn’t the first time a non-fungible token community has been targeted by a phishing attempt; the Bored Ape Yacht Club is an excellent example. Users’ intellect is exploited in these assaults, causing them to unwittingly grant access to their wallets by clicking on fraudulent links.

The non-fungible token community is growing, and in the future years, it is expected to experience a tremendous flood of people. This should encourage platforms and businesses that provide such services to strengthen their defenses against hackers and cybercriminals. The responsibility for cybersecurity falls not just on service providers, but also on individual users.

Categories
Business

IvoryPay to launch crypto payment gateway for online businesses in emerging markets

Trade, commerce, and the entire value exchange system are no longer restricted to a single country’s borders. Businesses these days try to reach a worldwide audience by utilizing technology. Despite businesses’ (small and large) efforts to tap into the potential of borderless transactions, they have faced a number of obstacles, the most notable of which are the exorbitant transaction fees charged by traditional banks and fintech, as well as the unfavorable fluctuations in the value of national currencies.

As a workaround, IvoryPay strives to assist businesses, merchants, and creators in maximizing profits by providing an alternate payment method. IvoryPay is an all-in-one payment infrastructure built on the Solana blockchain to help online businesses develop faster. The infrastructure was created to help enterprises to accept bitcoin payments from clients all over the world.

Businesses in emerging markets can use IvoryPay to lower transaction costs, speed up transaction processing and payment confirmation, and accept payments in stable currencies.

The IvoryPay ecosystem is made up of three components: the Ivorypay payment gateway, the NFT Storefront, and the IVRY token. The payment gateway architecture enables online businesses to accept payment in stablecoins and the IVRY token allows clients to pay in the most convenient way possible.

QR codes, check-out connections, payment links, and buttons are all options for IvoryPay businesses. Digital creators and enterprises will be able to better monetize and diversify their revenue streams thanks to the NFT Storefront. Creators can pick from pre-made templates to quickly set up their storefront and get it up and running, with an integrated payment system that allows them to sell NFTs without interruption. The IVRY token, which is the project’s native cryptocurrency, will be utilized as a medium of exchange between users and merchants, as well as for staking.

Oluwatobi Ajayi and Ope Akinremi, who are also Co-founders of Uptrend Africa, one of the largest crypto marketing firms in Africa advocating grassroots cryptocurrency adoption, devised the idea for IvoryPay as an alternate form of payment facilitation. Oluwatobi, who has spent the last few years working in the crypto/alternative payment space, believes that “global businesses have reached a point where trade barriers should be non-existent and payment solutions should present businesses with multiple options with the end goal of simplifying payment processes and enhancing user experience without the need to break a sweat or empty your pocket in the process.

Ope further added that “consumers are the backbone of the global economy and it is the foremost responsibility of all forward-thinking businesses to be in tune with the demands of their consumers. Thinking forward, in this case, would imply offering users the means to make payment in the manner they find most convenient, and trendy.”

It’s only a matter of time before Ivorypay unveils its comprehensive payment infrastructure, which is now in development. The project has the potential to transform online enterprises in emerging nations and global trade in general.

Categories
Social Good

The Alkebulan Tribe to cover Africa’s history with NFTs.

Throughout history, Africa has been known for the compelling and vibrant stories of its people. In the past, these stories were passed down through oral tradition but as time has gone by, new methods like writing and recording became handy in passing on the heritage. 

With more technology, new methods are still coming up to maintain the history and this is the story of how some young Africans have harnessed Web3 for a new wave of storytelling through NFTs. 

A group of creatives from West Africa have come together to look at the iconic historical African stories through a new futuristic lens in the form of a collection of 6,000 NFT pieces in an undertaking that has been branded as The Alkebulan Tribe.

In a tribute to history, the name ‘Alkebulan’ is the original and by many historians’ accounts, the oldest name for Africa and fits perfectly into The Alkebulan Tribe’s mission to chart Africa’s history for the new ages. 

The team at Alkebulan consists of digital artists and animators, developers, tech creatives, and entrepreneurs with a sole mission to unite Africa’s rich history with technology using comic books, games, and NFTs.

“This is more than just a project but a movement all about leading Africa into the Metaverse,” Justice Eneje, the co-founder of The Alkebulan Tribe says about their initiative. He adds that the team is aware and passionate about how tech can further African storytelling through art. 

With the original collection focused on West African gods and folklore, one of the artists, Tobe Ezeogu points out that his creativity is powered by years of research that have made him well-versed in African mythology and folklore that he then throws into the mix to create the pieces.”

There are currently 6000 unique and exclusive Alkebulan NFT art pieces that showcase the rich cultural heritage and history of  African warriors and royalty. 

Each member will own all rights to their NFTs and ownership of the Alkebulan NFT comes with a series of benefits including free comics releases and Airdrops. 

To join the Tribe, one has to mint an Alkebulan piece and minting is to be done from their official website here. The exact date for the mint is yet to be communicated but real-time updates can be found on the Alkebulan official channel on Discord. 

Before the mint, a 2-piece limit has been set per wallet to allow as many members as possible to access the NFTs. At the time of purchase, a randomly selected NFT piece will be minted on the blockchain and delivered to a user’s wallet and OpenSea account 72 hours after the public sale. 

To promote user interest, holders of each AlkebulanTribe piece will get lifetime revenue from character skin purchases and for every piece held from this initial collection, tribe members are made eligible to mint from future NFTs as well. 

A sample story from The Alkebulan Tribe

Categories
Business

Ethereum NFTs Come to Instagram This Week & Facebook Is Next

Meta revealed yesterday that it will begin rolling out support for NFTs on the popular photo-sharing app Instagram this week, after CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s tease in March. Support on Facebook is also just around the corner.

Starting this week in the United States, Instagram will allow NFT collectors and producers to link their crypto wallets to display verified collectibles, with a progressive rollout that won’t touch every user at once. The tool will first enable NFTs created on Ethereum and Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain scaling solution. 

Instagram will soon include support for NFTs created on Solana and Flow, two other popular collectibles platforms. MetaMask, Rainbow, and Trust Wallet are among the wallets that will be supported at launch, with Phantom, Coinbase Wallet, and Dapper Wallet to follow.

An NFT functions similarly to a blockchain-backed receipt for proving ownership of an item. It’s frequently used for digital commodities including artwork, profile images, sports souvenirs, and interactive video games, with a market worth $25 billion in 2021.

NFT images posted on Instagram, according to Meta, will have a unique “shimmer” quality that aesthetically distinguishes them from regular shared images and photos, and they will be ascribed to both the collector and the original artist. There are no costs associated with using the NFT capability.

According to a Facebook representative, Facebook will add NFT support “soon,” as well as the option to utilize NFTs as augmented reality (AR) stickers on Instagram. Meta is launching its NFT initiative in collaboration with Gary Vaynerchuk and Jen Stark, as well as ventures like Adam Bomb Squad and Boss Beauties.

Meta’s move is similar to Twitter’s, which in January allowed select users to show NFT profile images. The feature is only available to Twitter Blue subscribers, and it currently only supports Ethereum NFTs.

While some praised Twitter’s functionality, which was implemented during a hot market and was considered a benefit for popular acceptance of NFTs, others criticized it. Even some NFT fans complained about the requirement to pay a subscription fee to validate an NFT as a profile photo, citing the environmental impact and crypto frauds as examples.

Meta’s efforts are part of a bigger corporate push into the metaverse, which was fully unveiled last October when Facebook changed its parent company’s name. The metaverse is a future internet concept in which users communicate in shared 3D areas utilizing avatars and virtual and augmented reality hardware is supported.

However, it’s uncertain whether Meta would adopt an open ecosystem that employs NFTs to facilitate the transfer of interoperable objects and assets between metaverse platforms. Although Facebook’s October presentation showed NFTs being used for things like digital concert merchandising, crypto developers have remained wary of the company’s Web3 strategy.

Zuckerberg discussed the possibilities for supporting interoperable NFT assets in an Impact Theory podcast conversation with entrepreneur Tom Bilyeu that was published yesterday.

“I think in a lot of experiences, especially social ones where people are getting together and want to express something about themselves, you’re going to want these things to transfer,” said Zuckerberg, per quotes provided by Meta.

“I would imagine that if we make this pretty easy for it to be interoperable, then there’s going to be a lot of developers who will choose for that to be the case, even if not everyone does,” he added. “So I think that’s going to be pretty powerful.”

Categories
Coins

What is the Wallet of Satoshi?

Ever heard of the lightning wallet? It is the Wallet of Satoshi, an easy-to-use Bitcoin wallet that allows you to start sending and receiving lightning network transactions instantly. This article may give you an insight on how to use it, as well as the pros and cons compared to other options. 

The name Bitcoin Lightning wallet arises from its focus on simplicity and the best possible user experience. Its main purpose is to enable extremely fast and cheap payments, much faster and cheaper than regular Bitcoin transactions while retaining the same level of security.

The word Satoshi is in reference to the smallest unit of the Bitcoin currency recorded on the blockchain. It is one hundred millionth of a single bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC). The unit was named in homage to the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

How it works
Everything you need is included in the wallet. No confusing bells and whistles. It’s so easy and intuitive to use. You don’t have to write down a passphrase or anything like that. Simply install the wallet onto your device and get started right away.
To make a payment or receive payments, one has to just click on “Scan to Pay”  and immediately the camera on your device is activated to scan the QR code. Since almost all payments are made by QR code, this is a sensible and secure arrangement given the rise of Bitcoin scams. 

One can either send coins in the form of Bitcoin or Lightning on the Wallet of Satoshi. Lighting is the kind of payment that one uses when shopping, and making restaurant payments among other transactions. It is a micro-payment that is sent in extremely small amounts of money, in the order of one ten-thousandth of a cent at a time. It is, therefore, faster, cheaper, and more reliable than Bitcoin.

There is also a solution for someone who wants to send Bitcoin to a receiver that wants lightning. One can just click on the Bitcoin icon in the middle of the QR code, which is displayed to the right of the Lightning bolt. Then the QR code opens for receiving Bitcoin, instead of Lightning. You can tell what type of address it is by the symbol inside the QR code. It doesn’t matter if you send Bitcoin or Lightning, Lightning will arrive.

The Wallet of Satoshi is accessible in all countries where there is Bitcoin investment and trading. In Uganda, one can purchase a meal using Bitcoin at The Patio restaurant only if their money has been stored on the Wallet of Satoshi.

One can also get their own Lightning address from the Wallet of Satoshi. This Lightning address is similar to an email address. A randomly generated label per wallet is created before the @ sign. This name cannot be set by yourself but is created for you by the app. You can share this Lightning address if someone wants to send you some Satoshi to your Lightning wallet. You can also make Lightning payments to other Lightning addresses. 

Pros and Cons
One of the advantages of the Wallet of Satoshi is that you can create a backup account. This can be done in case one loses their account or phone or deletes the application. All you have to do is enter your email address and log in. After logging in, you will receive an email with two words. Enter these two words in the app and log in again. Thus, the email address has been verified, and if your phone gets lost, your credit can be restored. These words are only needed to verify the email address. You don’t have to write down the words to set up a backup with them later. Then the email address is sufficient.

Additionally, as explained above it is called the Lightning wallet because of its ability to make faster payments. Also, the process of setting up your account is easy and convenient. All you need is to create a lightning address for your account to be ready for use. The verification process can be either done on WhatsApp or your email address.

The wallet’s greatest disadvantage is that one cannot fully withdraw their money, unlike other wallets. This is because one is required to have reserve fees just like banks.

In conclusion, the Wallet of Satoshi is one of the best wallets crypto users have tested in terms of user-friendliness. All relevant functions are available at a glance. No cluttered overload of features. It is particularly pleasing that all functions are immediately available and that you can test and try them out at your leisure first. The Wallet of Satoshi is the perfect wallet to get started in the Lightning world.

Categories
Business

Car Dealers SBI Motors to accept BTC & XRP.

Through a press release on 9th May 2022, Japan-based SBI Motor has announced that it will start accepting Bitcoin (BTC) and Ripple (XRP) payments for its cross-border e-commerce site for used cars.

SBI Motor Japan is a subsidiary of the Japanese major conglomerate known as SBI Holdings that employs over 9000 people globally working in the fields of asset management, environmental energy, financial services and biotechnology-related businesses. 

The move appears to be step one in a comprehensive plan that will see the other subsidiaries within the SBI Group also accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment to tap into the wide variety of unbanked people currently excluded from the world economy. 

In the press release, SBI referred to a 2017 World Bank study that showed that 1.7 billion people were unbanked with a vast majority of these residing in the emerging markets of African countries that SBI Group sells to. 

SBI Motors sells over 5000 used cars annually to African countries including Uganda and Kenya but also stretches its reach to Ireland in Europe and the Bahamas Islands of the Caribbean. 

As a company with such strong global dealings in emerging markets characterized by limited technological capacity, high fees on remittances and transactions, tax, corruption and bureaucratic delays, it was prudent for SBI to find ways to bring unbanked populations within the fold. 

With reference to Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, CooCoin’s study, SBI noted in its press release that  Africa has witnessed a 15-fold and 25-fold increase in total cryptocurrency transactions and the total number of users respectively throughout January 2022 from the previous year.

Cryptocurrencies were thus looked at as a more viable option without the need for banks or exorbitant transaction fees making them a better cross-border savings technology allowing more users to participate in the global economy quicker.

“Crypto asset remittances use the blockchain (distributed ledger), so even if the banking system stops functioning, as long as the Internet is operational, remittances can continue to be used without being affected by the failure of exchange etc,” SBI said.

According to SBI, the Bitcoin and Ripple payments will be facilitated by the crypto exchange subsidiary of the financial group known as SBI VCTrade Company, Ltd. 

On top of security measures through screening of clients and users, the platform will adhere to anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regulations as outlined in various set international standards.

The development makes SBI Motor Japan the first cross-border e-commerce platform in Japan to add XRP as a payment option.

“We will continue to expand our services to meet the needs of our customers, and will not stop with SBI Motor Japan’s support for crypto-asset settlements,” the company added concerning its plans to add other crypto assets to the list of supported payments.

This all comes at a time when major firms and corporations like Gucci and Equinox have also continued to add crypto payments in a bid to meet their customers’ growing demands.