Ripple is on the way to transform the way Japan and the Philippines make cross-border remittance, as the company announced its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service expansion, adding to Ripple’s momentum in the Asia-Pacific region.
SBI Remit Co., Ltd, the largest money transfer provider in Japan, joined forces with mobile payments service Coins.ph and digital asset exchange platform SBI VC Trade. The three companies would use Ripple’s ODL service to provide faster, more affordable remittance options to the $1.8 billion annual remittance market.
Ripple’s ODL would also free up liquidity from the three companies, as they would use XRP as a medium for transactions.
Nobuo Ando, Representative Director of SBI Remit, noted that the joint venture sees the tremendous potential in leveraging blockchain technology to transform not only the way payment transactions are made but in how the companies manage their business by unlocking trapped capital.
“The launch of ODL in Japan is just the start, and we look forward to continuing to push into the next frontier of financial innovation, beyond real-time payments in just the Philippines, but to other parts of the region as well.”, Ando added.
The expansion comes despite the ongoing lawsuit with the SEC waiting to conclude whether the XRP is a security. Furthermore, ex-SEC executive William Hinman deposited his testimonials to the Ripple vs. SEC case. Investors stated their optimism that the lawsuit may turn out to end in Ripple’s favor. Ripple executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen have filed to dismiss the case against them, as SEC’s Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman commented that there is a lack of clarity on the regulatory status of digital assets, which may be pivotal for the outcome of the Ripple lawsuit.
Shortly after the news of Ripple’s Asia-Pacific expansion, the price of the sixth-largest crypto to date skyrocketed over 10 percent, securing a monthly high of $0.7518 before correcting down to a current price point of $0.7086 per XRP.
Leading technical indicators like MACD, moving averages and momentum are signaling a strong bullish trend forming, as XRP’s price is well above the $0.58 pivotal point and the latest push broke the $0.64 and $0.68 resistance levels.
Meanwhile, if bulls manage to secure the $0.70 area, a possible new target area would be above $0.80.