Rakuten adds XRP to 44M users
Rakuten integrated XRP into its payments and loyalty flow, making the token available to roughly 44 million Rakuten Pay users in Japan and allowing spot trading to begin April 15. Multiple reports noted the listing and showed XRP trading near $1.38 in that coverage window. (x.com) (coindesk.com) (finance.yahoo.com)
Rakuten has started offering XRP inside its payments and loyalty system in Japan, putting the token in front of about 44 million Rakuten Pay users. (coindesk.com) The rollout began on Tuesday, April 15, with spot trading through Rakuten Wallet and with XRP tied into the Rakuten Pay app, according to CoinDesk and Yahoo Finance. Both reports said Rakuten Pay reaches roughly 44 million users in Japan. (coindesk.com) (finance.yahoo.com) CoinDesk reported Rakuten Pay users can spend XRP across more than 5 million merchant locations in Japan, while Yahoo Finance said users can also buy XRP with Rakuten loyalty points through Rakuten Wallet. Rakuten Payment’s English-language service pages describe Rakuten Pay as a smartphone payment app that already lets users spend Rakuten Points and Rakuten Cash in stores and across Rakuten services. (coindesk.com) (finance.yahoo.com) (payment.rakuten.co.jp) Rakuten Pay is not a niche wallet in Japan. Rakuten Payment says the app already combines store payments, point use, and top-ups through Rakuten Cash, which means XRP is being dropped into a consumer app built for everyday checkout rather than a stand-alone trading screen. (payment.rakuten.co.jp) That puts XRP inside a broader Rakuten financial network that already links shopping, banking, cards, and rewards. Rakuten Payment says its business is designed to strengthen the company’s wider ecosystem of Rakuten Points and Rakuten identification accounts across online and offline services. (payment.rakuten.co.jp) The timing also lands as XRP was trading near $1.38 in market coverage on April 15. CoinDesk’s market report said the token was climbing toward that level as traders reacted to the Rakuten integration. (coindesk.com) Rakuten has spent the past year pushing Rakuten Pay deeper into daily commerce, from airport acceptance to online stores and transit-related top-up campaigns. Its September 2024 release said Rakuten Pay ranked first for customer satisfaction in Japan’s QR code payment category for a second straight year. (payment.rakuten.co.jp 1) (payment.rakuten.co.jp 2) Rakuten Group’s public press index for April 2026 did not show a parent-company release about XRP on the page available at publication time, so the clearest public details came from market and crypto coverage rather than a fresh Rakuten corporate announcement. (global.rakuten.com) (coindesk.com) For now, the practical change is simple: a token that mostly lived on exchanges is being threaded into one of Japan’s largest shopping-and-payments ecosystems, starting April 15. (finance.yahoo.com) (payment.rakuten.co.jp)
