Starting tomorrow, 44 million people in Japan can turn their reward points into XRP and use it to shop at more than 5 million stores.
Rakuten Wallet, the digital asset service from Japan’s Rakuten ecosystem, will begin offering XRP for immediate purchase tomorrow, along with Stellar, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Toncoin. What’s really new is that Rakuten users will be able to turn their Rakuten Points directly into XRP and then use it to pay for things with Rakuten Pay throughout Japan.
What Rakuten Actually Is
Rakuten is a massive Japanese company similar to Amazon, but it also offers banking, travel services, mobile phone plans, and a popular rewards program. Its loyalty program, built around Rakuten Points, is huge – holding over 3 trillion points worth about $23 billion. The company processes hundreds of millions of transactions every month.
Rakuten’s e-commerce platform handles 5.6 trillion yen in goods each year, which means XRP is being used within a very busy online shopping network in Asia.
Linking XRP to this network would connect it with everyday shopping and business in Japan, something most cryptocurrency projects only dream of achieving.
To celebrate its launch, Rakuten is offering a promotion where users can earn up to 100,000 yen in XRP rewards.
XRP’s Position in Japan
This integration does not come out of nowhere.
According to data from the JVCEA Green List – a framework recognized by Japan’s financial regulator (FSA) for high-quality crypto assets – XRP is the third most popular digital asset held on Japanese exchanges, following Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Japan’s financial regulator is planning to establish new rules for cryptocurrency by mid-2026. These rules could significantly lower the tax on profits from digital assets, reducing it from 55% to 20%. This change would make holding and using XRP in Japan much more financially attractive.
It’s important to note that this is a project coming from Rakuten Wallet, not Ripple. Ripple hasn’t officially commented on it, and Rakuten has stated they made this decision on their own.
Why This Is Different From a Standard Exchange Listing
We usually hear about crypto becoming more popular through things like new exchanges, price forecasts, or government approvals. But this is different – it’s about integrating crypto payments into a popular, everyday app that many people in Japan already use, even if they’ve never considered cryptocurrency before.
XRP becoming a redemption option for loyalty points is not a new use case in theory.
The biggest change is the sheer size of it all. Starting tomorrow, a massive network of 44 million users and 5 million merchants will be able to use 23 billion dollars worth of points with XRP.
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2026-04-14 15:36