Rakuten Inc., which owns Viber messenger, plans to launch Rakuten Coin in Russia by 2019.
According to the statement made by Viber’s CEO Djamel Agaoua, the company is now looking into the peculiarities of the Russian jurisdiction with the purpose of launching its own cryptocurrency in 2019:
“Our mother company is creating Rakuten Coin: cryptocurrency, which is supported by the entire Rakuten ecosystem,” he said.
According to Agaoua, Racuten Coin will be most likely usable for online purchases and exchangeable for rubles, US dollars and Euros, but this will depend directly on the evolving Russian regulatory framework in the field, as the coin is to be licensed by the Bank of Russia first.
It was back in March 2018, when CEO of Rakuten Inc. Hiroshi Mikitani first revealed his plans for launching cryptocurrency aimed at reinforcing customers’ loyalty to company’s products.
The Head of E-Commerce in Viber Zephrin Lasker also revealed the company’s plans for Q4 2018 to launch an e-commerce platform in Russia. The platform will allow its users to make purchases via the app.
Meanwhile, according to a recent statement made by the Head of the State Duma’s Committee for Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov, the adoption of crypto regulation in Russia may be postponed till autumn.
There are 45 million active users of Viber messenger in Russia, as of June 2018. However, Viber may be banned in Russia in the same manner as it was in case with Telegram, if the Federal Security Service will not be able to gain the messenger’s encryption keys, as the Russian Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov noted in May.
https://en.bitnovosti.com/2018/07/04/viber-considers-launching-its-cryptocurrency-in-russia/