Even during times when XRP and Ripple faced challenges in their home country, Japan stood out as a major ally. Recent regulatory developments suggest Japan could play an even bigger role in XRP’s future.
Over the past several months, Japan has accelerated efforts to modernize its digital asset framework. The country proposed legal reforms to classify many cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, paving the way for spot ETFs. It also introduced a more investor-friendly tax regime.
Although the legislation must still complete the full process before such financial vehicles are allowed to launch, the direction has become increasingly clearer. This could be significantly beneficial for XRP.
SBI Continues Pro-Ripple Initiatives
SBI Holdings has maintained its pro-Ripple initiatives for years. Both parties have worked through SBI Ripple Asia to expand cross-border payments across the region. Meanwhile, SBI VC Trade remains one of Japan’s largest XRP-friendly exchanges.
Most recently, Ripple and SBI announced that Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, launched in Japan after receiving approval from the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA). This expanded their partnership into the regulated stablecoin market.
SBI also filed for a product that could become the first Japan-based XRP ETF. Instead of pairing the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, the proposed products went for Bitcoin and XRP. This highlights SBI’s conviction that Ripple’s token could become a core institutional asset in the country.
Institutional Demand Drivers
Given the relatively short history of the cryptocurrency industry and the lack of regulation in most jurisdictions, proper regulatory frameworks can open doors for additional investments from larger players. Japan has been at the forefront of crypto regulation, and XRP has generally benefited from this.
Unlike the prolonged legal battle Ripple endured in the US against the SEC, Japanese regulators have long treated XRP as a crypto asset rather than a security. Combined with SBI’s banking relationships and Ripple’s growing enterprise presence, that regulatory certainty helped create one of XRP’s strongest international footholds.
If Japan approves spot crypto ETFs, XRP could be among the earliest beneficiaries, thanks to its history and the infrastructure already in place there.
