After announcing its launch in June and after months of delays, Japanese financial services corporation SBI Holdings finally opened its crypto exchange platform to the public. With the implementation of the project, the financial institution becomes the first bank to offer this type of service.
Named VCTRADE, the crypto exchange platform began operating on Tuesday, July 17th, according to a statement issued by the company through its website, which reports that the institution launched the process for receiving applications and opening new accounts.
Starting accepting applications to open new accounts with our virtual currency exchange service (VCTRADE) today. Account opening is available for people aged 20 to 70 living in Japan. Applications to establish corporate client accounts are not currently accepted.
SBI Holdings
SBI Holdings put its system into operation last June. However, the procedures were only available to those users who signed up in October, when the call was made.
SBI Holdings VCTRADE cryptocurrency exchange allows XRP (XRP), Bitcoin (BTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) trades against the Yen
In total, more than 20,000 customers answered the call and began trading with XRP (XRP), formerly known as Ripple (XRP), in exchange for Yen, the official currency unit of Japan. Although the company initially offered only transactions with XRP, it later added support for Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
As you may recall, the company issued a press release in June of this year informing that it had completed the requirements and paid all the fees required by Japanese law to start operations. In 2016, SBI Holdings laid out a practical route for the creation of its crypto exchange platform. Almost two years ago, they created SBI Virtual Currencies as a first step to launching the new platform on Tuesday.
Other projects such as SBI Crypto, SBI Wirex Asia, SBI Capital Base, BCause, and Digital Asset Exchange were also announced by the bank last year. Each of these initiatives seeks to cover the entire spectrum of cryptocurrency.
SBI Holdings movements in the world of cryptocurrency have also included the purchase, in March, of 40% of CoolBitX, a Taiwanese company dedicated to cold wallets. Another of the corporation’s announcements consists of the one made in April of this year when it was announced that SBI’s Russian subsidiary, known as SBI Bank LLC, established a working alliance with the R3CEV consortium with the intention of using blockchain Corda for its operations.
