A major announcement was made by SBI Investment, a significant venture capital firm in Japan, indicating potential positive movement for Ripple's XRP. SBI declared its intention to become a validator on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and to begin running the node.

The firm aims to be chosen as a trusted validator recommended by the XRP Ledger (XRPL) Foundation in the future, contingent upon stable operation.

Ripple is currently facing legal battles with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), leading to direct selling pressure on its native crypto, XRP.

The price of XRP has decreased by 16% year-to-date, while Bitcoin (BTC) has experienced a 43% increase in the same period. Over the last 30 days, XRP's price has dropped by an additional 15%, with an average price of $0.512 at the current time. The 24-hour trading volume has decreased by 10% to $926 billion, and the market cap is approximately $28 billion.

Once validators are registered on the Unique Node List (UNL), they have the ability to contribute directly to the ecosystem's development by voting on new XRPL features. SBI VC aims to be a validator that represents the voices of the XRP holder community in Japan and plans to incorporate holder opinions into voting decisions through surveys and other methods.

To ensure XRP holders can make well-informed decisions for the ecosystem, the company will provide information on new features and amendments.

It is noteworthy that SBI has been involved with XRP since the introduction of its services and has become one of the most recognized brands, with customers associating XRP with the SBI group. They have utilized the XRP Ledger for international remittance solutions, such as Ripple Payments.

SBI plans to use XRP Ledger as the blockchain infrastructure for the "EXPO2025 Digital Wallet NFT" issued at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, which the SBI Group sponsors.