Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. Monday launched a cryptocurrency exchange after plans were first reported in February.

The exchange, launched under the company’s Rakuten Wallet Inc. division, launches with spot trading via mobile app for three cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. The service launches with an Android app only, but the company said it plans to release an iOS version in September.

Customer funds will be held separately from Rakuten’s own funds. Crypto assets will be held in cold wallets, with support for private keys that use a multisignature scheme. Putting security first, the company’s requiring all transactions, including logging in, withdrawing money and withdrawing assets, to use two-step authentication.

The company noted that customers who have a bank account with Rakuten Bank will be able to open a Rakuten Wallet account easily and seemingly those without a Rakuten Bank account cannot currently use the service. The signup guide page (in Japanese) states that a “Rakuten Bank account is required to open an account.”

Whether Rakuten intends to expand the service to others is unknown. Rakuten has 1.3 billion customers worldwide offering a wealth of opportunity for the company in both promotion of the new service as well as the potential to sign up millions of users as well.

At least at launch, trades on the service are free as well, making it an appealing offering even if it only supports three cryptocurrencies at launch.

“Going forward, Rakuten Wallet aims to further expand its lineup of services to provide customers with secure and convenient transaction services,” Rakuten said in a statement.

This isn’t Rakuten’s first involvement in cryptocurrency, though it’s the first time it has offered exchange services. Rakuten has accepted bitcoin as a payment method since 2015, one of the first major companies to do so, later acquiring bitcoin processing company Bitnet Technologies Inc. in 2016.

The company also acquired a minor cryptocurrency exchange called Everybody’s Bitcoin in August 2018 for $2.4 million that it may have used to power Rakuten Wallet.

Photo: 31029865@N06/Flickr