Japanese financial information services provider Morningstar, a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based financial conglomerate SBI Group, has announced that it will allow its shareholders to receive the Ripple-affiliated cryptocurrency as a benefit.
Morningstar says that all shareholders who hold 100 or more shares as of March 31 are eligible for the program.
The purpose of the payment is to show gratitude to the company's investors.
Shareholders will be able to receive 2,500 in Japanese yen ($21.12) in the form of XRP tokens for each batch of 100 shares.
The SBI subsidiary began offering dividends in the XRP token in 2019.
Ripple has long had a strong presence in Japan because of its long-standing partnership with SBI.
The two joined forces all the way back in 2016 in order to set up a new venture called SBI Ripple Asia.
Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO of SBI Holdings, joined Ripple's Board of Directors in April 2019 before leaving it in early 2021.
Kitao reaffirmed his support for Ripple in December 2020 after the blockchain company was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over allegedly illegal token sales. The SBI boss clarified that XRP was viewed as a "cryptocurrency asset," not a security, under Japanese law.
Alex DovbnyaSBI VC Trade, another subsidiary of SBI, introduced an XRP-based lending product in February.
In July, SBI Remit, the company's cross-border payments arm, started using Ripple's on-demand liquidity solution.
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Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov