Kengo “Ken” Suzuki, a professional player of crossover action fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (SSBU), has signed a contract with SBI e-Sports, the gaming arm of Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, to receive his salary in major cryptocurrency XRP.
It has been reported that Ken will now be part of SBI e-Sports’ newly established SSBU division. The player will receive his annual salary in XRP instead of Japanese yen “based on wishes of the player and the sponsorship” with SBI VC Trade, SBI’s crypto-focused venture capital arm.
Professional Japanese gamer @KENisbg will now receive his salary in $XRP, following a newly signed contract with @SBI_eSports https://t.co/5IeAav6VJ8 — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) October 15, 2020
However, he is also considered to be the world’s best Sonic player.
In an October 15 tweet, Ken confirmed that he now belongs to the SSBU division of SBI e-Sports.
［御報告］ 本日よりSBI e-sportsのスマブラ部門に所属させて頂くことになりました。年俸は株式会社SBIVCトレード様とのスポンサー契約に基づき暗号資産「XRP」で受領します。 至らぬ点もあると思いますがプロプレイヤーとして精一杯努めていきたいと思いますので応援の方、よろしくお願い致します。 pic.twitter.com/M7xdBgTwdF — SBI | KEN (@KENisbg) October 15, 2020
SBI e-Sports is a new professional esports subsidiary of SBI launched in June 2020. In late September, the company officially announced that SBI e-Sports will pay its players in XRP as part of a sponsorship deal with SBI VC Trade.
Thus, on October 9, SBI also announced that the firm will be running a security token offering based on SBI e-Sports’ shares.
Source: Cointelegraph