Rakuten Wallet Puts Its Chips on XRP for Real-Time Crypto Payments

Rakuten Wallet has made a strategic bet on XRP for crypto payments, citing its unique ability to solve two major structural obstacles in the industry. According to Yasuo Matsuda, senior analyst at Rakuten Wallet, crypto payments have long suffered from slow transaction finality and prohibitively high network fees.

XRP's XRPL technology, however, delivers transaction finality in 3-5 seconds with average fees of less than $0.001 per operation. This technical architecture is applied to a concrete use case - the instant settlement of commercial transactions - making the Rakuten Wallet thesis grounded in proven technology.

The integration of XRP spot trading on Rakuten Wallet represents a first step in familiarizing users with the asset, ahead of a potential integration into the group's broader payment flows. This decision sends a strong signal to the industry that the race for real-time crypto payments is open, and XRP is firmly in contention.