Tokyo-based SBI Holdings, a major financial services company, is reportedly looking into granting XRP as part of a benefit program to all shareholders of SBI Group, according to CEO Yoshitaka Kitao.
SBI subsidiary Morningstar confirmed in August that XRP, the world’s third-largest digital asset by market cap, will be distributed to its shareholders.
Now, as reported by Cointelegraph Japan, SBI Holdings is considering a plan to distribute XRP to shareholders company-wide, for the financial year ending in March 2020. SBI is a longtime Ripple partner and invested in the San Francisco startup back in 2016.
SBI says it’s also preparing to launch a new mining facility within the next year.
The financial services company is planning to establish crypto mining facilities in the US and Kyrgyzstan.
According to Kitao, the facilities will allow it to mine “more effectively and efficiently.”
In addition, Kitao says the company plans to work with Yahoo! Softbank. In October 2019, SBI revealed it would team up with Z Holdings, which manages Yahoo’s Japanese division.
“When we talked about this (financial business alliance), there were discussions about merging with Yahoo! Softbank.”
But the SBI Group currently has around 7,000 workers, and it appears that both entities will not be under the same management due to differences in corporate culture.