Share this article

E-Commerce Giant Rakuten Now Lets Users Shop With Cryptocurrency

The move opens up crypto payments at thousands of merchants across Japan that accept Rakuten Pay and Rakuten Point Card.

Updated May 9, 2023, 3:16 a.m. Published Mar 1, 2021, 10:03 a.m.

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is now allowing users to spend bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at merchants throughout Japan.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Long & Short Newsletter today. See all newsletters

By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

According to a recent announcement, users of Rakuten's cryptocurrency wallet can now exchange bitcoin, ether and bitcoin cash for the firm’s e-money, Rakuten Cash, to charge its Pay app and Point credit card.
The firm says it's not levying fees on such transfers, which can range from 1,000 yen ($9.37) to a maximum of 100,000 yen ($937) in total value per month.
The move means customers can pay with crypto at thousands of merchants across Japan that accept Rakuten Pay and Rakuten Point Card.
This spring, Rakuten is also integrating its crypto wallet into the Pay app.
Rakuten's ecommerce service has over 95 million registered users according to a JPMorgan insight report.

payments Rakuten CoinFlash

Tanzeel Akhtar

Tanzeel Akhtar has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes Africa, Financial Times, The Street, Citywire, Investing.com, Euromoney, Yahoo! Finance, Benzinga, Kitco News, African Business Magazine, Hedge Week, Campden Family Office, Modern Investor, Spear's Wealth Management Magazine, Global Investor, ETF.com, ETF Stream, CIO UK, Funds Global Asia, Portfolio Institutional, Interactive Investor, Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoNews.com, Bitcoin.com, The Local, The Next Web, Mining Journal, Money Marketing, Marketing Week and more. Tanzeel trained as a foreign correspondent at the University of Helsinki, Finland and newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Literature from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and completed a semester abroad as an ERASMUS student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is NCTJ Qualified - Media Law, Public Administration and passed the Shorthand 100WPM with distinction. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.