Starting April 15, 2026, Rakuten Wallet is adding XRP as both a listed asset and a payment method, allowing users to buy XRP with Rakuten Points and spend it at more than 5 million merchant locations across Japan.
The integration marks the first time a third-party token has been embedded directly into Rakuten’s loyalty and payments infrastructure. It also connects XRP to one of Japan’s largest loyalty point systems, where more than 3 trillion points, worth roughly $23 billion, are currently in circulation.
What Does the Rakuten and XRP Integration Actually Do?
Rakuten Pay, the payments app behind this integration, has 44 million users in Japan. It is not a crypto-native product. It is the everyday payments app that millions of Japanese consumers use for regular shopping, which makes this a notably wide distribution channel for XRP.
Through the new setup, users can:
- Buy XRP directly using Rakuten Points
- Load Rakuten Cash with XRP
- Spend XRP at over 5 million registered merchant locations that accept Rakuten Pay across Japan
Read more: coinmarketcap.com
