The cryptocurrency wallet offering from Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has added bitcoin spot trading.
Rakuten Wallet has announced that it has launched a new service for crypto asset spot trading, complete with a dedicated smartphone app.
The Rakuten Group is a Japanese e-commerce leader that has been in operation for more than 20 years, raking in annual revenue of more than $9.3 billion. The company was a relatively early adopter of the potential of bitcoin, first accepting bitcoin as a payment method in early 2015.
Since then, the company has demonstrated interest in embracing the world of cryptocurrency, setting up the Rakuten Wallet in March 2019. Rakuten Wallet was intended to be a subsidiary of Rakuten Group, a cryptocurrency exchange that is ultimately one facet of the company’s larger strategies. With this business up and running, new features are added regularly.
According to a press release issued by the company on August 19, 2019, Rakuten Wallet now features spot trading of bitcoin, ether and bitcoin cash — allowing users to trade for the cryptocurrencies with near-instantaneous delivery.
The release also notes that Rakuten Wallet is going to leverage a wide array of security features to protect customer funds for its new spot trading app, many of which are only possible through its status within the Rakuten Group. For instance, customer funds will be managed in a trust from Rakuten Trust Co. Ltd, which is itself managed by Rakuten Bank Ltd. Cold wallets, two-factor authentication and other security measures will also be used for protecting the crypto assets themselves.
The release claims that this new feature will be accessible through a smartphone app 24/7, 365 days a year. Existing customers of Rakuten Bank will have a streamlined path to access the service and, initially, this app will only be available for Android, with iOS functionality coming soon.