Rakuten Wallet adds XRP support

Rakuten Wallet will start handling XRP on April 15, adding the token to a crypto service Rakuten launched in 2019. (global.rakuten.com) (blockonomi.com) The launch ties XRP to Rakuten’s payments network in Japan, where Rakuten Pay serves 44 million users and Rakuten Points can be spent at about five million locations. (blockonomi.com) (global.rakuten.com) Rakuten already lets customers turn loyalty points into crypto. In December 2019, the company said Rakuten Wallet users could exchange Rakuten Super Points for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. (global.rakuten.com) Rakuten also linked crypto balances to everyday spending before this week’s XRP addition. In February 2021, Rakuten said users could charge Rakuten Cash with Bitcoin and other crypto assets and then spend that balance through Rakuten Pay and Rakuten Point Card merchants. (global.rakuten.com) That makes the XRP rollout less a brand-new payments system than an expansion of a system Rakuten has been building for years across trading, stored-value payments and loyalty points. Rakuten Wallet described itself in 2024 as the group’s crypto exchange arm, offering spot and margin trading while expanding into Web3 services. (global.rakuten.com) Rakuten’s scale gives the move weight inside Japan’s consumer internet market. Rakuten has said Rakuten Ichiba alone reaches more than 100 million registered members in Japan, and its payments business kept growing in 2025 as transaction volume increased with a larger customer base. (global.rakuten.com 1) (global.rakuten.com 2) The loyalty program is also large enough to matter on its own. Rakuten said in 2022 that the cumulative number of Rakuten Points issued had passed three trillion, and those points could already be earned and spent across Rakuten services and affiliated merchants. (global.rakuten.com) Japan has been one of XRP’s stronger retail markets for years, and Rakuten’s decision puts the token inside a regulated exchange business run by a major listed technology and finance group. Rakuten Wallet said at launch in 2019 that it operated as a crypto asset exchange business under Rakuten Group ownership. (global.rakuten.com) The immediate test starts on Tuesday, April 15, when Rakuten users can see whether XRP becomes just another trade on the app or another balance they can move into everyday spending. (blockonomi.com)