As the cryptocurrency market increases in volume, more companies are launching digital currency exchanges able to deliver what crypto traders are looking for. At least three new exchanges have been launched this week: LINE Financial Corporation, SBI Virtual Currencies, and Revolut.
Japanese chat app LINE launches its cryptocurrency exchange
LINE Financial was established by LINE as a follow-up to LINE Pay, a mobile money transfer and payment service available on the LINE messaging app, in order to further reinforce its position in the financial business domain. LINE Pay’s global annual transaction volume exceeded JPY 450 billion and reached 40 million registered users.
The application process for registration as a virtual currency exchange has already been started with the Financial Services Agency, and it is currently under review.
LINE will use this new company to provide a variety of financial services, including a place to exchange and transact virtual currencies, loans, and insurance, all from the LINE app. LINE Financial will also be actively promoting research and development of technologies such as blockchain. LINE hopes to become a leader in the FinTech industry as the world moves increasingly towards a cashless wallet-less society.
SBI Virtual Currencies only supports XRP at launch
Also from Japan is SBI Holdings that has launched its digital asset exchange SBI Virtual Currencies. The new exchange will be supporting XRP as the only digital asset at launch as Ripple continues to grow in global liquidity because of its strong institutional use case and scalability (1,500 transactions per second).
SBI Holdings’ subsidiary SBI Securities is Japan’s largest online securities company with more than 4 million brokerage accounts. SBI Virtual Currencies is designed to be a reliable exchange for both its institutional customers and individual digital asset buyers in Japan.
SBI Holdings CEO and Executive Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao said: “Not only does it have a clear use case, XRP is faster, cheaper and more scalable than any other digital asset. I strongly believe it will become the global standard in digital currencies.”
SBI Virtual Currencies looks to join xRapid ecosystem, Ripple’s enterprise-grade solution, to help institutions source liquidity for cross-border payments between Japan and the rest of the world. Ripple will eventually integrate SBI VC’s APIs so that xRapid users can convert XRP to JPY and JPY to XRP instantly through SBI VC. The high cost of liquidity inherent to cross-border payments is significantly decreased with xRapid.
Ripple’s senior vice president of business development, Patrick Griffin, commented: “Today’s decision to make XRP the primary digital asset of SBI Virtual Currencies shows the utility, efficiency, and scalability respected financial institutions around the world see in XRP. This is a critical step forward in our mission to build XRP liquidity and build an Internet of Value”.
UK-based Revolut launches cryptocurrency feature to its exchange
Revolut, a digital banking alternative founded in 2013, will now include “cryptocurrency exchange” to its portfolio of services such as pre-paid debit cards, currency exchange, and peer-to-peer payments.
All Revolut customers will be able to buy, hold and exchange cryptocurrencies in-app in seconds, as the innovative fintech continues to disrupt traditional banking and bring cryptocurrencies to the mainstream. Customers will be able to buy cryptocurrency in all 25 base currencies, eliminating foreign exchange fees for those looking to buy their cryptocurrencies in currencies such as Swiss Franc or Polish Zloty.
The entire exchange will take just 30 seconds and then customers will securely hold their cryptocurrency within the Revolut app or transfer it to other Revolut customers instantly, and for free.
Nikolay Storonsky, CEO and Founder of Revolut, commented: “We have been amazed by the incredible demand of our cryptocurrency feature and are delighted to begin opening it up to all Revolut users. Now that we have upgraded and tested our systems, we are able to cope with demand and will avoid disrupting the service for everyone else by rolling this feature out gradually, starting with our Premium customers.”
