A major partnership between Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings and the Solana Foundation has sparked debate within the XRP community, with some investors questioning whether one of Ripple's longest-standing allies is shifting its blockchain strategy away from XRP.
The concerns emerged after SBI Holdings announced a strategic partnership with the Solana Foundation to build an on-chain financial market originating from Japan. As part of the initiative, SBI R3 Japan will be renamed SBI Solana Global, with the Solana Foundation joining the venture alongside existing shareholders SBI Holdings and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG). The new entity plans to focus on stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), cross-border payments, institutional on-chain finance and AI-era payment infrastructure built on Solana.
The announcement prompted some XRP supporters to question what the move means for Ripple's relationship with SBI.
"What's up with XRP?" one X user wrote. Another asked, "Are you still supporting XRP and Ripple?" A third user commented, "Xrp was supposed to move higher because of sbi usage. Seriously why even post."
Others were more blunt. "Xrp army in disbelief after years of thinking Japan was going to use xrp," one post read.
A warning sign?
The development has attracted attention because SBI has long been regarded as Ripple's closest strategic partner in Asia.
The two companies formed SBI Ripple Asia in 2016 to promote Ripple's payment technology across the region.
Over the years, SBI CEO Yoshitaka Kitao has repeatedly voiced support for Ripple and XRP, while SBI VC Trade became one of Japan's leading XRP-friendly cryptocurrency exchanges. SBI has also invested directly in Ripple and promoted XRP-based payment initiatives in Japan.
According to SBI, the venture aims to connect Japan's regulated financial system with Solana's global ecosystem, supporting issuance and distribution of stablecoins such as JPYSC, tokenized RWAs, cross-border settlement and institutional financial services.
Notably, the announcement focuses heavily on Solana as the underlying blockchain for these initiatives, with no mention of XRP or the XRP Ledger.
XRP lawyer urges perspective
Crypto lawyer Bill Morgan argued that XRP holders are overreacting. "The XRP community does not have to engage in cope about this news," Morgan wrote on X.
"Just accept that it is good news generally for crypto and specifically for Solana and XDC. It is not bad news for anyone."
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
