Rakuten has begun accepting applications for accounts for its anticipated cryptocurrency exchange called “Rakuten Wallet.” The company announced that pre-registration is available for customers with Rakuten Bank, but further details as to whether the service will be available for everyone has not yet been revealed.

The company previously stated that the crypto exchange will commence business in June 2019 and it will come with a mobile app that allows trading of crypto assets.

New Crypto Exchange for Customers

Rakuten had a revenue of $9 billion in 2018, and the decision to support cryptocurrency is seen as a way of accelerating adoption at the consumer level.

Although the company has operations worldwide, its base in Japan is a significant force in the crypto industry, with trading in Yen contributing to over half of the total Bitcoin purchases. Japan is the home of the first ever cryptocurrency exchange, Mt. Gox, and the creator of Bitcoin adopted a Japanese alias, Satoshi Nakamoto. The country is credited for its advanced cryptocurrency regulations, and the Rakuten Wallet will receive clearance from the Japanese Financial Services Authority.

Although Rakuten is a diverse company, its focus on e-commerce will be vital in supporting cryptocurrency. Since 2015, some of Rakuten’s branches have been experimenting with Bitcoin payments. According to Rakuten, the role of crypto payments in offline retail, e-commerce, and in p2p payments is expected to grow in the future.

Benefits to Customers

The use of crypto payments is expected to eliminate the risk of chargebacks that customers have to encounter when they use credit cards, the conventional payment method in e-commerce.

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With crypto payments, customers will not have to worry about asking for refunds from credit card providers or banks. Equally cryptocurrency payments are cheaper because there are no fees incurred, which may impact on profit margins of the merchant.

Rakuten indicated that in order for the company to efficiently offer crypto payment, there is a need to have a cryptocurrency exchange function.

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According to media site Globes, the team behind blockchain smartphone Finney has laid off a quarter of its workforce. Sirin Labs has let go of 15 team members after overestimating sales of its innovative device.

The company said it had received 160,000 Finney pre-orders in late 2018, so what’s happened?

Sirin Labs Loses Workforce

The company has said in late 2018 that it only needed to sell 80,000 devices in order to make a profit. Now it seems, not only have those pre-orders not translated to actual sales, it hasn’t managed to hit the median target either.

According to the report, the company admitted that it overshot sales estimations and had to subsequently lay off 15 of its 60 employees. The company denied that it failed to pay its staff in recent months and said that it is focusing on software development and distribution.

Controversy

Apart from the poor sales of Finney, Sirin Labs has been in the midst of controversy recently. In a completely separate issue, a $50 million lawsuit has been filed in California against company founder Moshe Hogeg.

Hogeg’s venture capital fund, called Singulariteam, is being sued by entrepreneur Adam Perzow. The complainant states that he sold the domain invest.com to Hogeg for $5 million in late 2014. An agreement was made for a joint venture between the pair using that domain. Perzow alleges that he was to be made a partner and manager of this venture. However, Hogeg violated the agreement made.

Perzow has gone on to claim that the Singulariteam fund has defrauded many investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Further, this isn’t the only lawsuit against Hogeg. According to reports, he is facing two other lawsuits filed against him in Tel Aviv by investors in firms that he manages. While the issue is ongoing and unresolved at present, there’s no way of telling where this will go for Hogeg.

>> Rakuten Launches Cryptocurrency Exchange for Customers

Sirin Labs

Sirin evolved from a $158 million ICO. Its intention was to make cryptocurrency-friendly phones; however, some are now wondering if its attention will move away from that and focus on the Sirin operating system (SIRIN OS) instead.

Sirin Labs launched the Finney blockchain smartphone at the end of 2018. Its price tag is a hefty $999 per device.

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