Viber Announces Plans to Introduce Its Native Rakuten Coin Worldwide
According to Viber’s CEO, the company is going to work on the promotion of its native Rakuten coin that is being developed in cooperation with Rakuten.
Cryptocurrencies are gradually conquering the world of social media and messaging apps. Now the related news has come from Viber, an instant messaging and voice app. In the recent interview, Viber Chief Executive Officer Djamel Agaoua has told journalists that they have plans to bring Rakuten Coin far beyond the Japanese borders and introduce it in other countries.
Let us remind you that the first information about the release of this coin appeared in media in February 2018.
Viber was developed in Israel. But 5 years later in 2014 Japanese-based Rakuten bought it for $900 million. Now the app has more than a billion users in different corners of the world. It means that if the company’s plans to introduce the coin developed in cooperation with its parent company in the app worldwide are brought into life, quite an impressive number of people will get access to it.
Last year, the company’s CEO revealed that they were considering an option to launch Rakuten coin in Russia in 2019. It was said that the coin would become available in the built-in app’s wallet and users would have a possibility to convert it into rubles, dollars or euros. To fulfill this plan the company needs to get a license from the local regulator. Nevertheless, the Russian government still hasn’t decided on how to deal with digital assets.
“Cryptocurrency is quite a serious issue. Rakuten announced its plans to launch its crypto in Japan and we are going to implement it globally. There are some legal aspects that we need to consider as different countries have different regulation. Now it’s available in Japan only but we are ready to introduce it in other countries as well”, noted Djamel Agaoua.
Messaging Apps Join the Crypto Race
Though cryptocurrencies in messaging apps are still considered to be a new phenomenon, Viber is not a pioneer in this sphere. Among others, there are Kik and Line messengers.
But the brightest example of its rivals is Telegram. The app has made a lot of noise when it canceled its public sale after raising $1.7 billion during its pre-ICO. Earlier this year, the company has launched the long-anticipated private testing of its Telegram Open Network (TON). And now the community is waiting for the official launch of TON that is scheduled for the third quarter of 2019.
It’s impossible not to mention Libra developed by Facebook. Today the coin is being widely discussed not only by crypto enthusiasts but by the world’s banks and policymakers as well. Though there a lot of controversial opinions, it is believed that even if the coin doesn’t manage to succeed itself, it will help to attract the attention of a wide audience to cryptocurrencies in general.
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