• The XRP community has spotted a new On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) payment corridor between Japan and Thailand. 
• The hub for the new ODL corridor appears to be Ripple’s exchange partner in Thailand, Bitkub.

As is well known, the expansion of the network of partners for On-Demand liquidity (ODL) is one of the highest priorities for Ripple in the coming year. In particular, the Asian continent is of crucial importance for Ripple, as the company itself, but also its Japanese partner and financial giant SBI, have repeatedly emphasized in the past.

In search of new activities and payment corridors on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), the community has now made a find in Asia. As CryptoEri wrote via Twitter a few hours ago, several transactions were spotted for a new corridor between Thailand and Japan.

Let’s Go ODL Spotting! Ripple Exchange Partner in Thailand Bitkub said early 2021 would be when they would “utilize cryptocurrency as a transaction protocol on the backend” to send and receive money. You’ve been SPOTTED! Thai Baht to Japanese Yen.

The website “XRP Utility Scan” recorded, as first reported by Mourad TOUMI, a total of 3 transactions from Thai Baht to Japanese Yen, each originating from the Thai crypto exchange Bitkub. The first transaction was for 170,503 XRP and was sent from Bitkub to SBI Trade.

Two other transactions, as shown in the screenshot below, were sent from Bitkub to the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank. The first transaction was worth around 880 XRP, while the second transaction was worth 602 XRP or around 352 USD.

Bitkub could handle ODL payments in Thailand for Ripple

For insiders in the XRP community, the fact that the transfers originated from Bitkub should not come as a surprise. During this year’s Next Block Asia 2.0, Bitkub co-founder and CEO Topp Jirayut said that Bitkub will serve as Ripple’s official exchange partner in Thailand:

Bitkub, Ripple’s official exchange partner in Thailand, is joining the RippleNet program. We are on a mission of humanizing blockchain experience, where people will inherently utilize cryptocurrency as a transaction protocol on the back end in order to receive, as well as transfer money, at a fraction of the cost across the globe. Within early next year, global money remittance at a much cheaper rate would be feasible

Earlier in October, Bitkub already announced a new ODL-based RippleNet payment corridor between Thailand and the UK.

In general, Asia could become an epicenter of adoption in 2021. Ripple’s General Manager Asheesh Birla announced earlier this month that the company is planning an aggressive expansion for XRP in the coming months. Asia, in particular, could be at the center of the effort thanks to SBI Ripple Asia.

The joint venture of SBI and Ripple has already been planning to capture up to 50% of the transaction volume of the entire Ripple network since late 2019. Once the infrastructure for ODL is ready, remittances from Japan to other banks in Southeast Asia are intended to be processed via XRP. The Dec. 19 tests could be the first harbingers.

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