Japanese payments giant enables XRP retail spending

TLDR

Japans Rakuten group has added XRP payments to its Rakuten Pay app, letting millions of customers spend XRP in everyday retail.

1. Rakuten Wallet has integrated XRP into Rakuten Pay, giving 44 million users the ability to buy, hold, and spend XRP at over 5 million merchants in Japan.
2. The move turns more than 3 trillion Rakuten Points, worth about 23 billion dollars, into a potential on-ramp into XRP, deepening real-world utility beyond trading.
3. The real impact now depends on how many users actually convert points to XRP, how tax changes land, and whether other Japanese platforms copy this model.

Deep Dive

1. What Rakuten Switched On

Rakuten Wallet has integrated XRP into its Rakuten Pay app, so users can buy XRP in-app, hold it, and convert it into Rakuten Cash to spend in stores.

Reports highlight that this gives 44 million Rakuten Pay users the option to pay at over 5 million merchant locations using XRP-backed balances rather than only yen or cards.

Ripples ecosystem lead called it one of the most significant XRP milestones, since Rakuten Pay is a mainstream shopping app, not a crypto-native wallet.

2. Why This Matters For XRP And Crypto

Rakutens loyalty system is huge: over 3 trillion Rakuten Points, worth about 23 billion dollars, are now convertible into XRP.

That lets users acquire XRP without touching a traditional exchange, simply by converting points earned from shopping, then spending via Rakuten Pay.

Japan has also approved a bill to cut crypto capital gains tax from up to 55 percent to a flat 20 percent, which could make holding converted XRP more attractive if and when the rule takes effect.

3. Early Market Reaction And What To Watch

According to market coverage, XRP climbed from about 1.32 dollars to 1.38 dollars on the Rakuten news, on strong volume but still within a broader downtrend.

Key next milestones include a planned Rakuten Bank integration that could add a direct fiat-to-XRP bridge for tens of millions of banking customers, plus any similar moves by rivals like Mercari.

The main risk is that users may simply keep spending points as yen, leading to low actual conversion into XRP despite the large theoretical funnel.

Conclusion

Rakutens XRP rollout turns a large, trusted Japanese payments and loyalty ecosystem into a live testbed for retail crypto spending.

If significant volumes of points and cash actually flow into XRP balances, it could strengthen XRPs payments token narrative and encourage other big consumer platforms in Japan and beyond to follow.