Mercari the Japanese ecommerce giant plans to distribute Bitcoin as part of a promotional campaign

Mercari, the prominent Japanese e-commerce company, has revealed its plan to give away Bitcoin (BTC) as part of a new promotional campaign. Mercoin, Mercari’s crypto subsidiary, announced the launch of an “invitation campaign” for its Bitcoin trading service in a press release on July 1. The campaign will run until July 31 and aims to incentivize Mercari users to bring in new users to the platform. For each person invited, both the inviter and recipient will receive 200 yen (around $0.12) worth of Bitcoin. There is no limit to the number of people users can invite, and users can also receive Bitcoin by signing up with a special code. To promote the launch of its BTC services, Mercari released a commercial featuring well-known celebrities such as former pro wrestler Riki Choshu and actress/singer Haruka Shimazaki. Despite being a late entrant into the Japanese crypto exchange sector, Mercari has experienced tremendous success since embracing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. According to Japan’s CoinPost, its crypto trading service has the highest number of new cryptocurrency users in the industry, with over 2.2 million users as of May 30. Data from the Japan Virtual and Cryptoassets Exchange Association also shows that 61.5% of new crypto wallets opened between March 2023 and March 2024 were on the Mercari platform. In March 2023, Mercari introduced its Bitcoin trading service features and has since integrated them with its core online flea market business. Earlier this year, the company launched a feature that allows customers to use their Bitcoin holdings to purchase goods on the Mercari platform. Mercari has also introduced similar features for Ethereum (ETH), including a service that enables customers to swap loyalty points for ETH tokens and a feature for vendors to receive ETH instead of fiat currency when completing a sale. Mercoin attributes the significant increase in new crypto wallets to the expansion of its customer base, which previously had no exposure to cryptocurrencies.