Rakuten is opening 44 million users to spend using XRP: can be used at 5 million merchants in Japan, and points can be used to buy crypto directly

Rakuten, Japan’s e-commerce giant (Rakuten), will list XRP on Rakuten Wallet starting April 15 and integrate it into its payments ecosystem. According to a CoinDesk report, 44 million Rakuten Pay users will be able to top up Rakuten Cash with XRP, and use it at more than 5 million merchants across Japan.

How it works: buy crypto with points, top up for spending

After integration, the usage flow is in three steps: users can directly buy XRP with Rakuten Super Points (Rakuten Points), hold and trade XRP in Rakuten Wallet, and then use the value of XRP topped up into Rakuten Cash to spend via Rakuten Pay at in-store and online merchants.

The key detail is that consumers don’t use XRP directly on the payment side; merchants receive Japanese yen. XRP’s role is the top-up medium—users convert XRP into Rakuten Cash, and the system automatically handles the exchange. This is in line with Japan’s stablecoin payments model of “merchants receive yen and don’t see the coin.”

Crypto entry point of a 3-trillion-points ecosystem

Rakuten Super Points are one of Japan’s largest loyalty programs, with total outstanding circulation exceeding 3 trillion points (approximately $23 billion in equivalent value). Allowing users to buy XRP with points is effectively opening a frictionless crypto entry that doesn’t require fiat on- or off-ramps—users don’t need to open an account on an exchange, and they don’t need bank transfers; they can enter the crypto world using the points they already have.

Japan’s crypto payments ecosystem accelerates

Rakuten’s XRP integration is another recent example of the rapid development of Japan’s crypto payments ecosystem. Previously, the JPYC yen stablecoin was officially launched, Haneda Airport kicked off USDC payment trials, and SBI’s JPYSC stablecoin is expected to be released in Q2. Coupled with the latest 《Financial Instruments and Exchange Act》 amendments passed in Japan that upgrade crypto assets to the level of financial instruments and reduce the tax rate to 20%, Japan is becoming one of the most active markets globally for crypto payments applications.

After Rakuten’s 5 million merchant network joins, the reach of (indirect) payments with cryptoassets in Japan will expand significantly—although, in essence, it’s still the “convert crypto to yen and spend” model, for end users, the experience is already close to “buying things with crypto.”

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