Rakuten Allows Customers To Shop With Cryptocurrency

Rakuten, one of the biggest retailers in Japan, is now allowing its customers to shop with cryptocurrency.

As a cryptocurrency-friendly firm, Rakuten has linked its crypto wallet – Rakuten Wallet – to its payment app – Rakuten Pay. Therefore, giving users the opportunity to convert their cryptocurrency for easy shopping.

Leveraging Cryptocurrencies for Everyday Use

According to reports, customers can now load up their Rakuten Pay accounts with crypto assets. This will enable the payments of goods from Rakuten retail stores, alongside other stores as well. As a mobile payment app, Rakuten Pay is a common payment medium for a wide range of retailers in Japan.

On the 24th of February, Rakuten began the service which will enable users to convert their cryptocurrencies and makes them available for shopping at Rakuten Pay. For the first time in Japan, there is no limit on the transaction amount and no fee is charged for converting crypto assets. The cryptocurrency assets are converted into Rakuten Cash, online electric money, which is then spent.

However, Rakuten pointed out that “it is necessary to open a physical trading account using the Rakuten Wallet and install a smartphone app dedicated to trading.”

Until now, cryptocurrency assets handled by Rakuten Wallet could be withdrawn and used via a bank account by paying a prescribed fee of 300 yen (tax included) after sale. With this new service, customers can load up their Rakuten Pay with crypto for free.

Rewarding Customers With Crypto Assets

As a way of boosting participation in this service, Rakuten has offered to award customers with crypto assets when they use Rakuten Cash. With this new service, Rakuten is integrating three of its solutions – Rakuten Wallet, Rakuten Cash (Rakuten’s e-money service), and Rakuten Pay – to offer customers cryptocurrency spending for shopping.

Rakuten is also offering bonus points to customers that use Rakuten Cash. When you use Rakuten Cash, you will get 1 point (1%)  of Rakuten points for every 100 yen (tax included) spent. This helps users save more money and use crypto assets more conveniently and profitably.

Rakuten has up to 1,000 points to reward their customers using crypto assets from February 24, 2021, to March 24, 2021. Additionally, since it is now possible to easily convert your cryptocurrency, it can now be used for payment at supermarkets, convenience stores, drug stores, etc. in cities all over the country.

Besides, the cryptocurrency assets covered by this service are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). With the success of these crypto assets, Rakuten plans on adding more cryptocurrencies in the future.

Before now, Rakuten entered a strategic partnership with decentralized sharing ecosystem ShareRing. The partnership is expected to ease the booking of any hotel or rental property on the Rakuten platform. This will apply to users with ShareRing’s API.

Bitcoin Price

As of the time of writing, Bitcoin price was $49,084.50, with a 24-hour trading volume of $61,642,691,364. BTC price also rose by 5.5% over the last 24 hours. Besides, it has a circulating supply of 18.6 million BTC coins and a max supply of 21 million. Binance is also the current most active market trading BTC.

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Featured image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Tokumeigakarinoaoshima.

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