Rakuten, the largest e-commerce service in Japan and stands out as one of the largest in its field in the world has entered the Cryptocurrency space. The Japanese Amazon has announced it’s acceptance of applications from users for its very own Cryptocurrency exchange called Rakuten Wallet.

Rakuten Wallet

Rakuten Wallet currently is open to customers who are already Rakuten Bank’s customers. However, the announcement fails to mention if it will be available to people utilizing other bank accounts.

Rakuten received the license for its Cryptocurrency exchange at the end of March 2019 from the Japanese Financial Service Agency. The exchange is registered under the Kanto Local Financial Bureau as a virtual exchange service provider.

While in August 2018, Rakuten acquired the Cryptocurrency exchange called Everybody’s Bitcoin Inc for $2.4 million. Rakuten Wallet is a fresh version of a rebranded Everybody’s Bitcoin Inc. which will have a new database of users.

Rakuten has always been Crypto friendly with its acceptance of Bitcoin way back in 2015 when it utilized Bitnet for Bitcoin payment processing on it’s US website.

The Japanese Crypto Exchange Competition

It’s not going to be an easy road for Rakuten, given that popular names in Japan such as Yahoo! Japan’s Cryptocurrency exchange TaoTao is expected in May, this year.

Existing Japanese Cryptocurrency exchanges are already moving ahead one step at a time. For example, Coincheck has added Ethereum and Ripple in its over-the-counter trading desk.

Japan has come a long way since the devastating Mt. Gox disaster. Mt. Gox originated from Japan, and things took a turn amongst the growing Crypto community in Japan as soon as it occurred.

Japan is seen to be a prime example of how Cryptocurrency was seen to be a disaster and scam but turned out to be the much-needed change into digital payments. Renowned Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ has announced the creation of it’s very own Cryptocurrency suggesting that the overall outlook in the Crypto space in Japan looks extremely positive.

CEO of Indian Cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, Nischal Shetty did not miss out on tweeting about Rakuten’s step into the Cryptocurrency space. He even touched on how India has a long way to go in the digital space.