Mercari Shocks Market with XRP Integration—Because What’s a Little Regulatory Uncertainty Between Friends?

Japan’s e-commerce behemoth Mercari just tossed XRP into its trading mix—right as Ripple’s legal drama enters its fifth season. The move signals a bold bet on crypto’s mainstream future, regulatory headwinds be damned.

Why this matters: With 20M+ users, Mercari’s platform could funnel fresh retail blood into XRP’s veins. The token surged 12% on the news—because nothing pumps a coin like a major exchange listing (except maybe an Elon tweet).

Cynic’s corner: Because when your e-commerce business faces slowing growth, why not dabble in speculative assets? At least until the FSA starts asking uncomfortable questions.

Mercari: XRP Move

The development comes just under a year after the firm added Ethereum (ETH) trading functions to its crypto app.

Mercoin launched its Bitcoin (BTC) trading service in March 2023.

In December last year, the firm claimed that over 3 million people were now using its crypto trading services.

It also said that it had recorded the highest number of new crypto wallet openings in the domestic crypto exchange industry.

The company said that it had added XRP to its platform on April 24, and said that customers could open a wallet with a minimum deposit of 1 yen ($0.007).

Mercari added that about 90% of Mercoin users say that they are first-time crypto investors.

The firm also teased forthcoming XRP-themed events. In the press release, the company wrote:

“In the future, we plan to consider a range of XRP-related events and campaigns. We will work to make XRP a more familiar cryptocurrency in Japan.”

Mercoin: Incentives and Events Planned

In July last year, Mercoin launched an “invitation campaign” to promote its Bitcoin trading services.

The company ran the campaign for four weeks, when it attempted to incentivize Mercari users to invite their friends and relatives to the platform.

The company handed both the inviters and recipients 200 yen worth of Bitcoin for each person they invited, with “no limit” placed on the number of people they could invite.

In March, the Japanese gaming developer Gumi announced plans to hold a $106,000 Bitcoin giveaway for its newest shareholders.

Japan’s Mercari enters mobile telecom business https://t.co/k5VcMza9Jy

The gaming company is part of a growing cohort of Japanese, stock market-listed firms that have used their balance sheets to buy BTC and altcoins this year.

Mercari claims to have over 23 million monthly users in Japan. Last month, the firm announced plans to enter the mobile telecommunications sector.