Rakuten May Help To Bring More Cryptocurrency Adoption With New Exchange

Rakuten is a Japanese e-commerce and Internet company based in the capital of Japan. The firm was founded in 1997 by Hiroshi Mikitani and is the largest e-commerce platform in the country of Japan. The e-commerce platform is also able to hold its own in the world as well, it is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in its revenues.

The company has branched out to the other divisions and has become a significant banking and credit card entity. The company operates in a similar fashion to Amazon and has been dubbed as the Japanese Amazon.

Rakuten has also invested in leading companies such as Lyft, Pinterest, Careem, in additions to partnerships with e-commerce giants such as Jd.com. Rakuten even owns companies such as E-bates.com, giving it more reach.

The company has now progressed to joining the cryptocurrency sector by launching its own cryptocurrency exchange.


The Rakuten Cryptocurrency Exchange
The corporate entity will start onboarding users onto their Rakuten Wallet, at the current moment registration is only open to those who are current customers of its Rakuten Bank.

The exchange should start running by the summer of 2019.

Rakuten, which has revenues in excess of $8.5 billion and commands the attention of a wide base of consumers may help to drive more interest to cryptocurrencies. The company has operations in more than 29 countries and provides several services to an increasing user-base.

Japan has had significant exposure to bitcoin since the deployment of early exchanges such as Mt. Gox, has a pro-bitcoin government, and is expected to be a key driver of innovation within the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector.

Rakuten may want to capitalize on this growing sector, thinking of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies as a value-add and one key segment in the future of banking.

By slowly integrating cryptocurrencies as part of their offerings in a regulated manner, Rakuten can glean data, learn about the use and consumer behaviors within this emerging sector.

Furthermore, Rakuten may also benefit from being an established entity with partnerships, investments and various ventures within the tech sector. The corporation can take its time, deploy the exchange, profit from regular trading by its current customer base and capitalize on bull runs in the future as well.

Other Japanese Corporations Move In
Rakuten isn’t the only exchange interested in providing and finding value within the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector.

Companies such as Yahoo! Japan are either investing in separate cryptocurrency exchanges as well.