Rakuten Pay Adds XRP Payments and Spot Trading for 44M Japan Users
Rakuten is integrating XRP into its Rakuten Pay app and Rakuten Wallet. From April 15, 44 million Rakuten Pay users in Japan can buy XRP with Rakuten Points, trade XRP on the app (spot), and spend XRP at checkout and via QR payments at more than 5 million merchant locations.
Ripple’s ecosystem growth manager Tatsuya Kohrogi said this links XRP to one of Japan’s largest loyalty ecosystems, where over 3 trillion Rakuten points (about $23 billion) can be converted into XRP. Rakuten previously enabled crypto payments for BTC, ETH and Bitcoin Cash from 2023, and it launched Rakuten Coin for loyalty rewards in 2021.
For traders, the key takeaway is XRP on-platform utility: payments plus a spot trading on-ramp inside a mainstream consumer network. This can strengthen XRP’s adoption narrative and support incremental demand expectations if users routinely convert loyalty points into XRP and use it for everyday spending.
Bullish
Bullish for XRP because the token gains direct, everyday utility inside a large Japanese payment and loyalty ecosystem. The addition of both XRP payments and an in-app spot buy/trade route can increase user conversion from loyalty points into XRP and reduce friction versus standalone crypto apps. In the short term, this can lift sentiment and improve near-term demand expectations from improved visibility. In the longer term, sustained merchant usage and recurring point-to-XRP flows would strengthen the adoption narrative and potentially support fundamentals.
This is not a guaranteed price catalyst by itself, but compared with prior payment support (BTC/ETH/BCH), adding XRP specifically through Rakuten’s trusted consumer brand and scale is a meaningful incremental tailwind for XRP’s market positioning.