Rakuten Wallet integrates XRP for 44M users, enabling spending at 5M merchants across Japan

Rakuten Wallet listed XRP as a tradable asset and payment method starting April 15, connecting it to the 44 million-user Rakuten Pay network and over 5 million merchant locations in Japan. Users can convert Rakuten Points — worth roughly $23B across 3+ trillion points issued — into XRP via the FSA-licensed exchange, then load balances into Rakuten Cash for spending. The catch: users never hold XRP at point of sale and merchants receive yen, making this more of a crypto-rail payments upgrade than direct adoption. A planned Rakuten Bank integration by Q3 2026 could add fiat-to-XRP conversion for another 17 million banking accounts.

TLDR by @Benthic

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