Rakuten Wallet adds XRP to its rails

Rakuten Wallet is adding XRP on April 15, plugging the token into Japan’s Rakuten payments network after years of limiting crypto use to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. (global.rakuten.com) (beincrypto.com) The new support is being reported as part of Rakuten’s wallet and payments stack, with XRP available for spot trading and for funding Rakuten Cash, the stored-value balance used inside Rakuten Pay. Rakuten introduced the Rakuten Cash route for crypto spending on February 24, 2021, calling it a first in Japan without handling fees. (global.rakuten.com) (cryptonews.com) Rakuten Wallet has let users swap loyalty points into crypto since December 24, 2019, at a rate of one point to one yen. At launch, that points-to-crypto service covered Bitcoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash; reports published on April 14 say XRP will join that list on April 15. (global.rakuten.com) (coinpedia.org) Rakuten’s scale is what puts this listing in focus. Rakuten Pay has about 44 million users and more than 5 million merchant locations in Japan, according to multiple reports on the rollout. (blockonomi.com) (cryptonews.com) The loyalty side is also large. Rakuten said in 2021 that it had awarded 2.5 trillion Rakuten Points, a pool it valued at about $23 billion at the time, and recent XRP coverage says the convertible points base is now above 3 trillion points. (rakuten.today) (finbold.com) Rakuten is not turning shop cash registers into direct XRP wallets. Reports on the launch say the typical flow is points into XRP and XRP into Rakuten Cash, which is then spent through Rakuten Pay at participating merchants. (cryptonews.com) (global.rakuten.com) That distinction matters for demand estimates. The social posts circulating on April 14 assume some portion of Rakuten’s points stockpile or user activity could be converted into XRP, but Rakuten has not publicly said how much of that pool it expects to move into the token. (x.com) (finbold.com) Rakuten has been building this bridge for years. The company launched Rakuten Wallet spot trading in August 2019, added points-to-crypto conversion in December 2019, and added crypto-funded Rakuten Cash payments in February 2021. (global.rakuten.com 1) (global.rakuten.com 2) (global.rakuten.com 3) Rakuten’s parent group remains one of Japan’s biggest consumer platforms. In full-year 2025 results released on February 12, 2026, Rakuten Group reported 2.5 trillion yen in revenue and said expanding ecosystem synergies remained a priority for 2026. (global.rakuten.com) For XRP, the immediate change is narrower than the hype and larger than a routine exchange listing: a regulated Japanese wallet is adding another way to buy it, fund it with points and route it into everyday payments. (global.rakuten.com 1) (global.rakuten.com 2) (beincrypto.com)