Rakuten Wallet Is Handing Out Physical SHIB Coins in Japan
Oct 16, 2026
Rakuten Wallet will give away physical SHIB coins at an Osaka investment seminar on November 3, testing whether Japan's retail investors still have meme coin appetite.
A coin you can actually hold
Rakuten Wallet, one of Japan's bigger crypto exchanges, is trying something pretty fun to get retail investors excited again. At an investment seminar happening November 3 in Osaka, the exchange will hand out physical Shiba Inu (SHIB) coins to people who show up and show their SHIB holdings in the app.
Why bother with a physical coin?
It sounds like a gimmick, and sure, it kind of is. But it's also a smart way to turn an online meme coin into something people can touch, photograph, and talk about. Japan's retail crypto market has been a bit sleepy compared to the meme coin mania seen elsewhere, so giving people a tangible souvenir is one way to test whether that excitement can be recreated locally.
It's a small event in the grand scheme of things, but it's a good example of exchanges getting creative about customer engagement instead of just relying on price pumps to bring people in. Worth watching if other exchanges copy the idea.