Rakuten Launches a Mobile App For Trading Cryptocurrencies

Rakuten Wallet, the subsidiary of Rakuten – Japanese eCommerce company, has released its mobile application to enable trading of cryptocurrencies.

Rakuten had been hinting at entering the crypto industry for a while now. And marking the intention to keep up with its plan, the eCommerce giant acquired ‘Everybody’s Bitcoin’ crypto exchange last year and announced its plan to release its own cryptocurrency this year under the name of Rakuten Coin under its loyalty program. 

The cryptocurrency exchange wallet will offer trading services for three cryptocurrencies for now: Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum. It will be made available to customers who bank with the Rakuten’s online bank through an application which will first be launched on Android and then later on iOS. 

Prior to the launch of the Blockchain powered mobile wallet, Rakuten partnered with a Silicon Valley housed cybersecurity firm, CipherTrace to help with the global regulators compliance formalities and in order to enhance the app’s security features. 

How Rakuten Group Embarked on its Blockchain Journey 

The Rakuten Group is not limited to eCommerce presently. It offers 70 different services like: travel, communications, and digital content, FinTech. A number of the services that the group offers are linked through membership that centers around the Rakuten members. This circling enhances a cross use activity by the users who interact with the group’s services. 

Seeing the prevalent inter-connectivity in its services, Rakuten Group laid the grounds for Rakuten Blockchain Lab. Housed in Belfast, UK, the lab is mainly a dedicated R&D organization which researches on the usages of the Blockchain technology. The lab especially focuses on the flourishing role that cryptocurrency based payments play in offline retail, P2P payments and eCommerce. 

This focus is what led them to enter the cryptocurrency exchange market. They believed that it for providing smooth cryptocurrency payments, it is necessary to offer a cryptocurrency exchange functionality. 

In addition to this concentrated focus, a number of Rakuten customers – especially the foreign exchange users of Rakuten Securities – have been asking for the provision of a cryptocurrency exchange service. 

The path on which the Rakuten Group is moving is one that comes cemented with the promise of rise in demand for Blockchain wallets and Cryptocurrency Exchange. This, in return, highlights that cryptocurrency wallet development can be a profitable area worth venturing into.