Japanese financial giant SBI to launch CFDs for Bitcoin, Ether and XRP

Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings is preparing to launch contract-for-difference, or CFD, trading for major cryptocurrencies.

Starting Aug. 31, SBI Holdings will start CFD trading service for crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and XRP, Cointelegraph Japan reported on Aug. 28.

As officially announced, the new service will be offered through SBI’s foreign exchange-focused arm, SBI FX Trade. The platform is accepting new account registrations immediately, the announcement notes.

The new trading offering will allow SBI clients to trade crypto CFD contracts against the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar, enabling a total of six new trading pairs.

According to the announcement, SBI FX Trade will become the first forex exchange business in Japan to offer CFD trading for cryptocurrencies.

A major financial institution in Japan, SBI Holdings has been actively involved in the crypto and blockchain space in recent years.

The company is known as a key partner of major blockchain company Ripple, which develops products on top of XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Since 2016, SBI and Ripple have been collaborating on a joint venture known as SBI Ripple Asia, which intends to promote XRP use in Asian financial markets. SBI is also planning to integrate Ripple-powered settlement across Japanese ATMs.

SBI’s upcoming crypto CFDs are not new for Japan though. Last year, local crypto firm Liquid launched Bitcoin CFD trading, enabling traders to speculate on the asset’s price movements against the yen and dollar. In July 2020, Monex Securities became the first online securities company in Japan to launch crypto CFD services.