Japanese e-commerce giant Mercari accepts Bitcoin payments

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Mercari, one of Japan’s largest e-commerce platforms, said it will begin accepting Bitcoin from June this year.

according to Report According to Nikkei, the company will process Bitcoin payments through its Tokyo-based cryptocurrency subsidiary Melcoin.

Melcoin will convert all BTC payments to Japanese yen, meaning that while buyers can choose to pay in BTC, suppliers will receive fiat currency.

The company will stop pricing in Bitcoin and sell its goods in Japanese yen.

However, customers can choose Bitcoin as a payment method when shopping on the site.

Japanese e-commerce giant strives to boost Bitcoin adoption

Mercari was founded in 2013 and has become Japan’s largest community market platform.

The company said in July 2023 that it had 22 million monthly users. The company is also trying to build a presence overseas, including in Europe.

In recent months, the company has launched a series of cryptocurrency-related products, including the Mercari Bitcoin cryptocurrency trading service.

The service allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin using proceeds from sales on the platform.

The platform also includes a loyalty points system, which Mercari has linked to its cryptocurrency trading arm, meaning Mercari users can exchange points for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin trading service Mercari surpassed 1 million users in October, just seven months after its launch, the company said.

Last June, Mercari said that about 80% of its crypto users had no previous experience trading crypto assets.

E-commerce: Japan’s new “Bitcoin portal”?

Observers have called the Mercari service (as well as a rival platform operated by Rakuten) a new “gateway” for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors and traders.

Rakuten, another leading Japanese e-commerce platform, has been active in the cryptocurrency space even longer than Mercari.

The company operates the Rakuten Wallet cryptocurrency exchange service. It has also integrated a loyalty points program with its cryptocurrency offshoot, allowing users to redeem points for crypto assets.

A survey last month found that among Japanese who started trading coins in late 2022, the majority chose Mercari’s Bitcoin trading app (24.7%) or Rakuten’s Rakuten Wallet platform (24.2%).

The news is a blow to the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. BitFlyer leads the traditional market, ranking third with a share of 11.3%, behind the two e-commerce giants.