Japan's largest online retail firm, Rakuten, has announced that it will soon accept bitcoin across its global marketplaces.
Rakuten is putting its investment in Bitnet, a startup that raised USD 14.5 million last October to work with this development.
Bitnet, which was founded by ex-Visa execs and is rivaled by Coinbase and Bitpay, will initially be integrated into Rakuten's US marketplace to allow customers to pay in BTC.
According to the San Francisco-based techcrunch.com web site, the new payment option will roll out in German and Austria, with other international markets to follow. Although, there's no specific mention of when Bitnet will be integrated into Rakuten Japan, which is the most prominent of its 12 country-specific services.
Techcruch.com quoted Rakuten, as saying in a statement, "The integration with Bitnet's platform will make Rakuten one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world to begin accepting bitcoin."
This news is notable because it not only continues the momentum for bitcoin among retailers, but it could also help position Bitnet as a credible alternative to the increasingly dominant duopoly that is Coinbase and Bitpay - both of which have raised significant venture funding, and own the most lucrative bitcoin retail partnerships.
Last year was an important year for bitcoin as many of established retailers, including the likes of Dell, Overstock and even Microsoft, started accepting the cryptocurrency to give customers an alternative avenue for payments.