Japanese crypto exchange Rakuten Wallet has launched its “Photo Contest 2026” campaign, under which it will distribute Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE) tokens among its 44 million users for posting dog photos on X. The corporation will select 11 winners, each of whom will receive 11,111,111 SHIB, worth about 10,000 yen, while the grand prize winner will receive 1,111 DOGE, worth about 18,000 yen.
Local investors see small SHIB and DOGE purchases as a form of “digital merchandising” — collecting penny-priced digital items inside familiar apps. Against this backdrop, corporations are clearly monetizing audience interest by tying cryptocurrency to everyday purchases.
By integrating SHIB into the Rakuten Pay network, the asset transitions from a speculative token into a spending mechanism usable across 5 million retail points.
How Shiba Inu coin became a marketing tool for Japanese crypto services
The campaign continues a shift in Japan’s tightly regulated crypto market, where retail giants are turning ultra-cheap tokens into a gamification tool. This massive commercial push became viable only after the Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association (JVCEA) designated SHIB as a compliant “Green List” asset in November 2025.
In this environment, Rakuten Wallet’s integration intensifies competition with marketplace Mercari, which earlier this month also added SHIB trading through its Mercoin unit, giving the C2C platform’s 23 million monthly users the ability to buy the token directly with loyalty points or proceeds from secondhand sales, starting from just 1 yen. This micro-transaction model solves a critical entry barrier for risk-averse retail users.
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According to Mercoin’s financial statements, out of 14 million crypto accounts opened in Japan, 4 million, or about 30%, belong to Mercari, and for 85% of these clients, the transaction marked their market debut.
SHIB’s breakthrough into the Mercari and Rakuten ecosystems effectively disrupts the crypto industry’s classic business model, as retail giants have turned the meme coin into a corporate loyalty currency, taking away traditional crypto exchanges’ monopoly on attracting mass-market users.
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