Rakuten Wallet Lets 44 Million Users Convert Loyalty Points to XRP, Sentiment Hits Two-Year High

Rakuten just flipped the switch. Users can now swap loyalty points for XRP.

The Japanese e-commerce giant’s wallet app went live today with full XRP integration, connecting 44 million Rakuten Pay users to one of crypto’s most debated tokens. People can trade it, spend it at over 5 million merchant locations across Japan, and rack up bonuses while doing it. Rakuten’s loyalty program sits on a $23 billion valuation, making this one of the biggest retail-level crypto rollouts to date. The positive-to-negative comment ratio for XRP shot up to 4.8, a level not seen in two years. Traders are talking. Investors are watching. But the price? It’s stuck.

What Rakuten Wallet Actually Does

The integration isn’t some half-baked pilot. Rakuten Wallet’s app now lets users convert their accumulated Rakuten Points—earned from shopping, dining, travel bookings—straight into XRP. From there, they can hold it, trade it, or spend it at participating merchants. The company rolled out a tiered reward campaign to sweeten the deal. Buy more than 30,000 yen worth and you get a bonus. Push past 100,000 yen and you’re entered into a lottery. An iOS version is coming soon, though no exact date got mentioned.

Rakuten didn’t just add XRP as a curiosity. The token now sits inside a sprawling ecosystem that touches everything from credit cards to streaming services. For context, Rakuten operates in 30 countries and serves tens of millions of active users. Adding XRP to that machine means real-world utility, not just speculation on an exchange. People can basically treat it like cash at checkout, assuming the merchant accepts Rakuten Pay.

The sentiment spike tells its own story. According to Santiment data, the ratio of positive to negative comments about XRP climbed to 4.8. That’s near historic highs. Enthusiasm is up. Chatter is up. But enthusiasm doesn’t always translate to price action, and that’s where things get messy.

Price Can’t Break $1.50

XRP hit $1.44 recently. Then it pulled back. The $1.50 level keeps acting like a ceiling, and the token hasn’t been able to punch through. It’s trading below both its 60-day and 200-day moving averages, which most technical analysts read as bearish. Yet six market indicators are flashing “Strong Buy” signals. So you’ve got bullish sentiment, bullish indicators, and a price that won’t budge. Kind of a weird spot.

Historically, sentiment spikes for XRP have led to short-term stabilization rather than explosive rallies. The market gets excited, the price consolidates, and then it either breaks out or rolls over. Right now it’s doing the consolidation part. Leverage got flushed after the recent failure to break resistance, which suggests traders were betting on a breakout that didn’t come.

More context: XRP Vegas Rally Positions Token as Future Reserve Currency Contender

The technical setup is contradictory. Strong buy signals usually mean momentum. But the moving averages tell a different story. XRP is caught between optimism and caution, and the Rakuten news hasn’t been enough to tip the scales yet. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. The market seems unsure.

What’s clear is that Rakuten’s move adds a layer of legitimacy that XRP hasn’t always had. This isn’t some obscure exchange listing or a rumor about a partnership. It’s a major retail platform with millions of active users giving people a reason to actually use the token. That’s pretty rare in crypto, where most tokens sit idle in wallets or get traded back and forth on exchanges.

Rakuten’s integration also positions the company as a leader in blending traditional loyalty systems with crypto. Other retail giants are probably watching. If this works—if users actually convert points and spend XRP—it could set a template. Loyalty programs have been around forever, but tying them to a cryptocurrency that can be traded or spent elsewhere? That’s new.

The practical use case matters. For years, XRP has been pitched as a bridge currency for cross-border payments, but most people never saw it in action. Now it’s something you can earn from buying groceries and spend at a restaurant. That’s a different narrative, and it might resonate with people who don’t care about remittances or liquidity pools.

LiquidChain Draws Attention

With XRP stuck in neutral, some investors are looking elsewhere. LiquidChain is getting mentioned a lot. It’s a Layer 3 infrastructure project trying to unify liquidity across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The presale is priced at $0.01455, and it’s raised over $700,000 so far. The pitch is pretty straightforward: instead of liquidity being fragmented across chains, LiquidChain wants to pool it into one environment. Features include a Unified Liquidity Layer and Single-Step Execution, which appeal to people tired of bridging assets between networks.

Related: XRP Logo Hits Vegas Sphere as Garlinghouses Lock In Teases Major Catalyst

It’s an earlier-stage play, which means more risk but potentially more upside if the project delivers. LiquidChain’s focus on cross-chain liquidity taps into a real problem in DeFi. Liquidity is scattered, and moving assets between chains is clunky. If LiquidChain can smooth that out, it might attract users who want exposure beyond the usual suspects.

Rakuten’s XRP integration is a big deal, but it hasn’t translated to price action yet. The sentiment is there. The infrastructure is there. The use case is there. The price just hasn’t followed. Whether that changes depends on how many people actually use the feature and whether other companies follow Rakuten’s lead. For now, XRP is consolidating, sentiment is high, and the market is waiting to see what happens next.

Hub: XRP price, news, and analysis