The discussion on Japan’s virtual asset tax reform has officially begun, making Rakuten’s XRP new features even more in the spotlight. As plans to reduce the virtual asset transfer income tax rate from a maximum of 55% to 20% are being explored, some analysts have pointed out that Japanese consumers may accelerate treating cryptocurrencies as “spending” assets rather than “holding” assets. According to Cointelegraph, Rakuten Wallet rolled out a feature this week that allows Japanese users to directly exchange their held Rakuten points for XRP. The XRP after the exchange can be traded within the app and used to make payments at more than 5 million Rakuten Pay partner stores. This effectively means that cryptocurrencies have entered a large retail payment network. Integrating XRP into a 3 trillion-point ecosystem Rakuten’s strength lies in its huge user base. The company’s loyalty points exceed 3 trillion points, worth about 230