Morningstar, a financial information services subsidiary of Japanese financial giant SBI Group, will continue the XRP shareholder benefits program.
Morningstar approved year-end shareholder benefits in the form of XRP, according to an official announcement on Friday.
The new dividend payout option is part of the company’s year-end incentive program to thank its shareholders for their continued support in addition to preliminary shareholder benefits. Under the program, Morningstar will provide XRP awards of 2,500 Japanese yen (US $ 23) per 100 shares owned by shareholders as of March 31, 2021.
The exact amount of XRP offered to shareholders will be determined according to a market price of XRP recorded on June 30, 2021, SBI determined. As part of the initiative, Morningstar will ask shareholders to open crypto accounts through the SBI Group’s crypto subsidiary SBI VC Trade.
As previously reported, Morningstar started paying dividends in XRP back in 2019, offering 30 XRP per 100 shares. Headquartered in Tokyo, the company focuses on providing financial information and investment research services. At the time of writing, the company’s stock is trading at 493 yen ($ 4.5), up over 2% over the past 24 hours, with a market cap of 44.2 billion yen ($ 407,000).
Morningstar’s parent company, SBI Group, has also considered paying dividends on the XRP cryptocurrency and is considering launching such a program in 2020. The company has been actively involved in the development of XRP-based products across its ecosystem and enabled the issuance of XRP loans to crypto platform SBI VC Trade in February.
SBI has supported Ripple in ongoing legal proceedings against the company in the USA. Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO of SBI, said Japan is the most likely country Ripple can move to if forced to leave the US
