The eccentric president, CEO and supporter of Ripple Inc and XRP, Yoshitaka Kitao, will join the San Francisco Startup’s board of directors. Acknowledging his expertise as an experience leader who has headed several companies in his extensive carrier, Ripple Inc says Kitao will bring on board leadership as well as knowledge of the global financial markets.
Here’s what he said:
“Blockchain and digital assets are changing the way we move money around the world, and Ripple is the driving force behind this positive change. I am excited by this opportunity to lend my expertise and be part of the company’s next phase of growth.”
In Welcoming him, the Chairman of Ripple Inc and one of the founders behind Ripple Labs, Chris Larsen had this to say:
“I am excited to welcome Mr. Kitao to our Board of Directors. From conventional financial markets to digital asset markets, his deep understanding of the financial services industry will offer valuable business and financial expertise to help Ripple continue to scale.”
It must be noted that Kitao and his company, SBI Holdings which he formed back into 1999 has grown by leaps and bounds. As a leader in banking and driving adoption in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, SBI Holdings backs an exchange VC Trade and Kitao has never been shy to laud the capabilities of Ripple Inc technologies including RippleNet. Kitao has publicly stated his wish to promote Ripple in SE Asia where the US firm is making progress, onboarding banks and payment processors. Back in Q1 2019, he said eventually Ripple and XRP through xRapid, will become the global standard in payment despite the market being demanding and tough.
“Because XRP is already beginning to become international, xRapid will be used for fund transfers in 2019. By increasing the so-called XRP’s plastic use, we anticipate that the [Ripple] market capitalization will easily exceed the market capitalization of Bitcoin (BTC).”
Even so, SBI has invested in Ripple’s competitor, R3 Corda, establishing SBI R3 and through Corda, an enterprise grade blockchain platform, SBI will be tasked with introducing companies to the settling layer. Their game plan is to see R3’s Corda use XRP as a preferred digital currency though R3 can use any digital assets including stable coins or fiat.
“You can use R3’s ‘Corda’ for international remittance, but Corda Settler and XRP use this because they have high affinity. That’s why the SWIFT partnership with R3 (Corda) is good news that brings bright materials to the market… What I emphasize is to combine R3 and Ripple to make XRP thoroughly practical useable.”