XRP Goes Mainstream in Japan with Rakuten Integration

Cryptocurrency adoption in Japan has taken a significant leap forward as Rakuten Wallet officially rolls out $XRP spot trading and payment functionalities. Starting today, users of Rakuten Wallet in Japan can convert their Rakuten loyalty points into $XRP.

Massive scale

It is now possible to spot trade the asset in-app or spend it as a payment method across more than 5 million merchant locations nationwide.

Ripple's development arm, RippleX, has noted that the integration is one of the largest retail deployments of $XRP to date.

$XRP will be able to gain exposure to an enormous consumer base of 44 million active Rakuten Pay users. The broader Rakuten ecosystem currently has over 3 trillion loyalty points in circulation. This equates to a staggering $23 billion in points that are now fully redeemable for $XRP.

Users can convert these points, load them into their digital wallets, and perform real-world retail payments in physical stores via QR codes.

The much-anticipated listing of $XRP on the platform was previously postponed, but it has now gone live smoothly.

Rakuten Wallet is currently running a promotional campaign in order to incentivize early adopters. Users who purchase 30,000 yen or more of the cryptocurrency will automatically be rewarded with 500 yen worth of $XRP. Meanwhile, users who purchase 100,000 yen or more will receive an upgraded reward of 1,500 yen worth of $XRP.

Currently, the new integration is live on mobile as an "Android Early Release".

However, Rakuten Wallet has officially confirmed that an iOS version of the app update is planned for release soon.