Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten today (April 15) officially enabled XRP payments on its Rakuten Pay app. Some 44 million users can now deposit XRP into Rakuten Cash and spend it at over 5 million merchants across Japan. This marks the largest real-world merchant integration for XRP to date, though Ripple has not publicly confirmed the move and Rakuten has called it an independent decision.
The integration is step-by-step: users can buy XRP with Rakuten Points, trade XRP spot within the app, store tokens in Rakuten Wallet, and finally deposit them as Rakuten Cash for spending. Rakuten’s loyalty ecosystem, with over 3 trillion points worth approximately $23 billion, is now directly linked to XRP.
From Points to Payments in Four Steps
No blockchain knowledge is required. The news was first shared by Tatsuya Kohrogi, Ripple’s senior ecosystem growth manager, who called it “one of the most important milestones for XRP” and said “embedding XRP into Rakuten’s loyalty and payment infrastructure is a strong signal of digital asset adoption.”
Rakuten already supports Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The choice of XRP likely stems from the XRP Ledger’s fast settlement and low fees. Ripple itself stayed silent, and Rakuten clarified it is a solo project, not a partnership with Ripple — a sign that XRP’s ecosystem expansion can happen without Ripple’s direct push.
From Exchange Token to Payment Tool
XRP has long been defined by legal battles and market cap rankings rather than real usage. Rakuten’s move could be the most convincing rebuttal yet. The 44 million potential users don’t need to understand crypto — they just use an app they already have.
Of course, the gap between potential users and active spenders remains huge. The conversion rate will be the real test of this integration’s success.