Japan e-commerce giant will buy cryptocurrency exchange

Japan’s largest e-commerce platform, Rakuten, announced that it will buy Everybody’s Bitcoin Inc, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange. Rakuten Group has expanded its business model by providing banking, securities, and insurance services, as well as various Fintech services and electronic money. In addition, the company has provided Rakuten service users with reward points called Rakuten Super Points, to be used across a range of services. The Rakuten Coin initiative, which converts reward points into tokens using blockchain technology, is also underway. Rakuten is said to be focusing on the potential of cryptocurrencies to function as means of payment for e-commerce, brick-and-mortar stores, and peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions.