Rakuten Adds XRP Payments and Spot Trading in Japan
Rakuten said its Rakuten Pay will fully integrate XRP for payments across Japan starting April 15. This will let Rakuten’s 44 million users spend XRP at more than 5 million partner merchant locations.
The company also added XRP spot trading in the same ecosystem. Traders and users can buy and sell XRP within the platform and store it in Rakuten Wallet.
Rakuten will further expand XRP access via rewards: users can convert accumulated “Rakuten Points” (over 3 trillion points, about $23B) into XRP stored in Rakuten Wallet. They can also use points to buy XRP, or top up Rakuten Cash with XRP and pay in-store where Rakuten Pay is accepted.
Rakuten previously supported BTC/ETH/BCH payments via its apps (from 2023) and launched Rakuten Coin in 2021 as part of its rewards model.
Neutral
Rakuten’s XRP rollout is a clear mainstream-use step: XRP can be used directly for in-store spending through Rakuten Pay at a very large merchant network, and the same app ecosystem also supports XRP spot trading and rewards-to-XRP conversion. This can improve medium-term accessibility and sentiment for XRP.
However, the news is more incremental than disruptive. While merchant coverage is large, the article provides no evidence of immediate volume surges, pricing guarantees, or broad new institutional catalysts. For traders, the most likely effect is a gradual sentiment tailwind rather than a direct, near-term price re-rating.
Given that Rakuten already supported BTC/ETH/BCH payments and added crypto functionality previously, markets may treat this as continued product expansion. Net impact on XRP price is therefore assessed as neutral, with upside bias for sentiment but limited expectation of immediate, outsized moves.