Rakuten indicated that the acquisition is in response to demands from a growing number of foreign exchange customers on its securities business arm, who have been calling for the offering of a cryptocurrency exchange service.Thus, the company has inked a share transfer agreement for 100 percent of an exchange called Everybody’s Bitcoin on August 31. The acquisition appears to be costing the ecommerce company USD 2.4 million, when it goes through on October 1.
Launched in March 2017, Everybodys Bitcoin is one of the several unlicensed crypto exchanges in Japan that came under scrutiny from Japans Financial Services Agency after the Coincheck hack in January 2018. However, with the planned acquisition, Rakuten aims to assist the exchange in enhancing its internal systems in an effort to meet with the regulators requirements for obtaining a license.
The acquisition deal follows a previous report that Rakuten is also planning to launch its own cryptocurrency as a way to help the group expand its global user base. The ecommerce company first started accepting Bitcoin payments in 2015, when it integrated its US website with Bitcoin payment processor Bitnet.
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