Ripple’s partner, SBI Holdings, has announced that it will join Project Agora, a new project led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) along with seven central banks. This news has caught the attention of the XRP community, which is speculating about the possibility of XRP being used for cross-border payments in this unified ledger project.
On September 19, SBI Holdings shared that it will be part of Project Agora. This involvement puts XRP in the spotlight because SBI Holdings is a major partner for XRP and the XRP Ledger.
Project Agora is a joint effort by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and several central banks aimed at enhancing cross-border transactions through tokenization. The participating central banks include Banque de France, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
“Through this project, we hope to improve the functionality of the financial system while maintaining the two-tiered structure of central bank money and private bank deposits, and provide new solutions that utilize smart contracts and programmability, thereby providing highly convenient services in cross-border transactions.”
The BIS/SWIFT-led initiative uses digital tokens to represent assets on a single ledger with smart contracts. The Institute of International Finance has brought together 41 private sector institutions, including JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, Sygnum Bank, Visa, Mastercard, Citi, and HSBC.
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Ripple’s Technology and Tokenization Potential
While the Project Agora initiative does not specifically mention XRP or the XRP Ledger, many in the XRP community believe that Ripple’s technology could fit well with the project. Ripple has been exploring tokenization on the XRP Ledger, including a June partnership with Archax to bring tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to the platform.
The unified ledger concept of Project Agora also aligns with Ripple’s Interledger Protocol (ILP), which connects banks and blockchains. This suggests that Ripple’s technology might play a role in the project, even if XRP itself is not directly involved.
The XRP community points out that Ripple has previously collaborated with the BIS and several central banks on projects like central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has stated that the company is focusing on gaining adoption in traditional finance.
XRP’s price has increased by 2% in the last 24 hours, now trading at $0.58. The low and high for the past 24 hours are $0.563 and $0.589, respectively. Trading volume has risen by 25%, showing growing interest from traders. Ripple is also a major player in remittances. If it captures 50% of the global remittance market—projected to reach $11.53 trillion in 2024 and $16.59 trillion by 2028—the XRP price could potentially reach $5.
