Rakuten’s launch comes alongside deals with South Korea’s KBank, Kyobo Life Insurance, and RLUSD listing across more than 280 pairs on OKX.
XRP is generating some of the loudest online buzz it has seen in two years, according to on-chain analytics firm Santiment, after Japanese retail giant Rakuten launched the ability for users to convert loyalty points directly into the token.
The move gives 44 million Rakuten Pay users access to digital assets via a loyalty network that holds more than $23 billion in points, and Santiment says the resulting social media reaction ranks second in reading bullish sentiment for XRP over the past 24 months.
What does the Rakuten deal actually mean?
Starting today, Rakuten Wallet users in Japan can convert Rakuten Group points into XRP, trade assets within the app, and spend them at more than five million merchant locations nationwide. RippleX, the development arm behind the XRP Ledger, certain launching on X, describing it as “one of the largest retail deployments of XRP as a payment method to date.”
Rakuten wallet is Run A launch campaign rewards users who purchase 30,000 yen or more in XRP with additional tokens, with larger prizes available through a lottery for those who invest 100,000 yen or more. An iOS version of the updated app is also scheduled to be released, following the early release for Android.
Scale is important here. Loyalty points are a consumer product that almost everyone uses but rarely thinks about critically. As one observer male On
Ripple has been building momentum around its broader ecosystem in recent weeks, with its stablecoin RLUSD gaining ground included To trade over 280 pairs on OKX and the company advertisement Partnered with South Korean internet bank KBank to explore real-world blockchain transfers through its network.
This collaboration builds on Ripple’s continued expansion across Asia, which also includes deal With life insurance company Kyobo Life Insurance focusing on token government bond settlements.
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Emotions run high, but Santiment urges patience
Despite the excitement, santement I offered A note of caution alongside its data.
“These events often do not immediately lead to significant price outbreaks,” the analytics firm wrote. “It’s usually after the initial wave of euphoria, after the FOMO has subsided, that the impact of this type of news leads to a bullish outcome.”
The company added that integrations with major companies are “exactly what drives prices over the long term” and that XRP investors were in for a tough period, with the asset down nearly 55% over the past nine months.
This context is important when you look at where XRP is trading now. The price of the token was around $1.37 at the time of writing, which represents a decline of more than 2% in 24 hours, on top of a decline of approximately 4% over the past week according to CoinGecko. However, it has recovered 3% in the past month, although that has done little to move it closer to its July 2025 all-time high of $3.65.
