Breaking: Ripple Launches First On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) Corridor in Japan

Ripple, the blockchain firm behind XRP cryptocurrency is expanding its popular on-demand liquidity (ODL) services in the Asia Pacific region with the launch of the first-ever live ODL in Japan, the firm announced today. Japan is Ripple’s biggest market for remittance business and its RippleNet technology is quite popular in the region. The ODL services play a key part in the RippleNet adoption as it allows for cheap and faster cross-border transactions using XRP liquidity.

The first ODL services in Japan would be incorporated by Ripple’s key strategic partner SBI Remit Co. in association with the mobile payment service provider Coins.ph along with digital asset exchange SBI VC Trade. Ripple hopes the first implementation of ODL in Japan would help it increase the adoption of popular tech.

“We see tremendous potential in leveraging blockchain technology to transform not only the way payment transactions are made but in how we manage our business by unlocking trapped capital,” said Nobuo Ando, Representative Director of SBI Remit. “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.”

Ripple Targets $1.8 Billion Filipino Remittance Corridor

Japan is home to a significant portion of the foreign population that came to the country for work. One such significant foreign community in Japan comes from the Philippines that account for the third-largest foreign population in the country. Every year these foreign nationals send money back home using traditional foreign exchange and money transfer services.

As per an estimate Filipino community account for $1.8 billion in the remittance flow. Sending money through traditional methods could be slow and expensive and Ripple hopes to tap into the market with its newly launched ODL services. Ripple hopes to capture the growing remittance market by partnering and enabling as many crypto platforms in the region to adopt its ODL services.

Ripple is currently battling out the key lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that had hampered its business in the US, however, it continues to forge new partnerships in Asia Pacific Region, especially Japan.