E-commerce giant Rakuten publicly launches crypto exchange; currently supports BTC, ETH and BCH

Exchanges • August 19, 2019, 2:28AM EDT
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Japan's equivalent to Amazon, e-commerce giant Rakuten, has publicly launched its cryptocurrency exchange, Rakuten Wallet.

Announcing the news on Monday, the company said that users can start spot trading in three cryptocurrencies - bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and bitcoin cash (BCH) - via a mobile app. The app is currently available on Android platform, with an iOS version planned for "early September."

Rakuten further said that customers' assets will be held in "cold wallet" to ensure safety, private keys will be managed through a multi-signature scheme, and that two-step authentication is also enabled for logging in and withdrawing funds. It also keeps customers' funds separate from its own funds, per the announcement.

Rakuten Wallet initially began accepting registrations in April, from Rakuten Bank clients. Most recently, the exchange also partnered with blockchain security firm CipherTrace for anti-money laundering protections. 

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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block and the author of The Funding newsletter. As our longest-serving editorial member, Yogita has been instrumental in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With over 3,000 articles to her name, Yogita is The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Before joining The Block, Yogita wrote for CoinDesk and The Economic Times. You can reach her at [email protected] or follow her latest updates on X at @Yogita_Khatri5.

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