Rakuten Gives Away Free Shiba Inu Coins to Millions

Rakuten Wallet is launching physical Shiba Inu (SHIB) souvenir coins for its 44 million users in Japan. The move aims to promote offline retail interaction and make cryptocurrency more accessible to conservative retail audiences.

The metal coins will be given away for free at events, complementing Rakuten's ongoing marketing efforts using meme tokens. This initiative follows regulatory approval of SHIB in Japan, signaling growing mainstream adoption of meme tokens in retail commerce.

Rakuten has also integrated SHIB into its Rakuten Pay system, allowing payments at 5 million partner merchants. This intensifies competition with Mercari's crypto platform and marks a significant step towards widespread adoption of cryptocurrency in Japan.