Why Rakuten and Binance Racing Into Crypto in August 2019 Signaled a New Era for Digital Markets

The Current Meta

August 19, 2019 was one of those days where multiple signals converged to paint a picture of a maturing cryptocurrency ecosystem. Bitcoin was trading at approximately $10,916, according to CoinMarketCap historical data, with Ethereum at $203.09 and the total cryptocurrency market capitalization hovering around $270 billion. The market had staged a remarkable recovery from the depths of crypto winter — Bitcoin had bottomed near $3,200 in December 2018 and rallied aggressively through the first half of 2019 — but was now consolidating in a range that felt neither euphoric nor despairing.

Two major product launches on this particular day captured the shifting landscape. Rakuten Wallet, the cryptocurrency subsidiary of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, officially began offering spot trading services for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash on August 19, 2019. The platform allowed users to convert Rakuten Points — the company’s loyalty reward currency — directly into cryptocurrency, creating a seamless bridge between mainstream commerce and digital assets. Simultaneously, Binance officially launched its mobile application on the Apple App Store on the same day, bringing one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges to iOS users worldwide.

These were not isolated developments. They reflected a broader trend of institutional and corporate infrastructure being built around cryptocurrency markets throughout 2019, even as retail enthusiasm remained far below the peaks of late 2017.

Volume & Floor Dynamics

The trading volume picture in August 2019 told an interesting story. Bitcoin’s 24-hour trading volume stood at approximately $16 billion, while Ethereum recorded about $6.1 billion in daily volume, according to CoinMarketCap data from August 19. These figures represented a significant increase from the volume troughs of early 2019 but remained well below the frenetic peaks of the 2017 bull run.

The NFT market specifically was still in its infancy. NonFungible.com data would later show that the total NFT trading volume for all of 2019 barely exceeded $6 million. CryptoKitties, once the poster child for non-fungible tokens, had seen its average sale price decline from triple digits to single digits. The “floor price” concept that would later dominate NFT discourse was largely irrelevant in 2019 — there simply were not enough active marketplaces or sufficient liquidity to establish meaningful price floors for most NFT collections.

However, the Rakuten Wallet launch was significant because it represented one of the first major integrations of cryptocurrency trading into an existing loyalty and rewards ecosystem. By allowing users to convert points earned through everyday shopping into Bitcoin and Ethereum, Rakuten was creating a distribution channel for cryptocurrency that did not depend on users actively seeking out an exchange. This points-to-crypto pipeline would later inspire similar programs from other major retailers and financial platforms.

Community Sentiment

The broader macro backdrop in mid-August 2019 was colored by growing economic uncertainty. The US Treasury yield curve had inverted the previous week — the 10-year yield falling below the 2-year yield for the first time since 2007 — a signal that had preceded every US recession for the past six decades. Traditional markets rallied on August 19, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.21 percent and the Nasdaq climbing 1.35 percent, but the underlying anxiety was palpable.

In the crypto community, the yield curve inversion sparked an energetic debate about Bitcoin’s potential role as a “risk-off” asset — a safe haven that investors would flock to during economic turbulence, much like gold. Travis Kling, a prominent crypto investor and former portfolio manager at Point72, articulated this thesis, suggesting that Bitcoin could eventually behave as a store of value during macroeconomic stress. Bitcoin’s price actually dropped on the inversion news, however, highlighting the uncomfortable reality that, at this stage in its evolution, BTC was still trading as a risk asset correlated with broader market sentiment.

Meanwhile, the academic world was also engaging with cryptocurrency in ways that lent legitimacy to the space. On August 19, 2019, economists Pierpaolo Benigno of LUISS University in Rome, Linda M. Schilling, and Harald Uhlig published a research paper titled “Cryptocurrencies, Currency Competition and the Impossible Trinity,” which argued mathematically that global cryptocurrencies could fundamentally disrupt central banking by making the traditional “impossible trinity” of international monetary policy even more unachievable. The paper, which cited thinkers ranging from Friedrich Hayek to crypto skeptic Paul Krugman, brought academic rigor to questions that had previously been debated primarily in online forums.

The Next Evolution

The convergence of corporate adoption (Rakuten, Binance), academic validation (the Benigno-Schilling-Uhlig paper), and institutional infrastructure building (EPAM Systems joining the Blockchain in Transport Alliance on the same day) pointed toward a market that was structurally maturing even as prices consolidated. The building blocks were being put in place for the next bull cycle, though few market participants in August 2019 could have predicted the scale of what was coming.

The NFT space specifically was on the cusp of a creative explosion. While CryptoKitties had demonstrated the concept of digital scarcity, and projects like Decentraland and Axie Infinity were experimenting with virtual worlds and gaming, the real breakthrough — the moment when NFTs would capture mainstream imagination — was still months away. The NBA’s partnership with Dapper Labs, announced in August 2019, would prove to be the catalyst, but its full impact would not be felt until early 2021 when NBA Top Shot generated hundreds of millions in trading volume.

The Flow blockchain presale, which began around this time, represented another significant milestone. By designing a purpose-built blockchain optimized for consumer applications — as opposed to Ethereum’s general-purpose architecture — Dapper Labs was betting that the next generation of NFT adoption would require infrastructure that ordinary consumers could use without understanding anything about blockchain technology.

Investor Takeaway

August 19, 2019 offered a snapshot of a cryptocurrency market in transition — no longer the Wild West of 2017, but not yet the institutional-grade ecosystem that would emerge in 2020 and 2021. For investors, the key signals were clear: major corporations were building real products and services around crypto, academic research was validating the foundational concepts, and the infrastructure for mainstream NFT adoption was being quietly assembled. Bitcoin at $10,916 and Ethereum at $203 represented entry points that, in hindsight, were extraordinary — but the lesson is not about missed opportunity. It is about recognizing that the most important developments in crypto often happen quietly, in product launches and partnership announcements, long before they show up in price charts. The investors who paid attention to Rakuten Wallet’s points-to-crypto integration, Binance’s mobile expansion, and the NBA-Dapper Labs deal in August 2019 were the ones best positioned to understand and capitalize on the NFT explosion when it finally arrived.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and unpredictable. Historical prices and market conditions referenced in this article do not guarantee future performance. Always conduct your own research before making any investment decisions.