Line messenger’s NFT arm raises $140M for Web3 services

December 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Crypto Exchange Bitfront Shuts Down Amid Industry Challenges

November 29, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Line shuts down crypto exchange to focus on blockchain and LN token

November 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

The Japanese messaging giant will still continue to support its Line blockchain ecosystem and the Link token despite the ongoing industry challenges.

The Japanese messaging giant Line has decided to shut down its cryptocurrency exchange business amid the ongoing crypto winter.

Line-owned crypto exchange Bitfront officially announced on Nov. 27 a plan to completely close down the platform by March 2023.

According to the statement, the closure was driven by the continued cryptocurrency bear market and other issues in the crypto industry.

Despite the exchange’s closure, Line will still continue to run its other blockchain ventures, including the Line blockchain ecosystem and Link (LN) token, the announcement notes, stating:

“Despite our efforts to overcome the challenges in this rapidly-evolving industry, we have regretfully determined that we need to shut down Bitfront in order to continue growing the Line blockchain ecosystem and Link token economy.”

Bitfront also emphasized that the decision to close the exchange was made for the “best interest” of the Line ecosystem and is unrelated to the ongoing industry scandal involving the FTX exchange.

According to the announcement, Bitfront will take a gradual approach to suspend its services, stopping signups and credit card payments on Nov. 28. The platform then plans to suspend additional deposits and interest payments of LN interest products and proceed with the related LN withdrawals by mid-December.

By the end of December, Bitfront aims to stop all cryptocurrency and fiat deposits alongside trading suspension and cancellation of open orders. Total suspension of withdrawals is scheduled for March 31, 2023, while customers would be still able to claim their assets in different jurisdictions of the United States.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Line launched its proprietary crypto exchange in 2018 as a Singapore-based business. Originally known as BitBox, the company was rebranded to Bitfront and moved to the U.S. in February 2020. The exchange has been downscaling some of its operations in recent years, suspending services in South Korea in August 2021.

Despite being a smaller crypto exchange, Bitfront has significant trading volumes at the time of writing. According to data from CoinGecko, Bitfront's daily trading volume amounts to $55 million, with the exchange trading a total of five cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Link, Litecoin (LTC) and Tether (USDT).

Japan’s Top Messaging App LINE Launches Marketplace With 40,000 NFTs

April 14, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Japan’s most popular social messaging app Line adds NFT marketplace

April 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Line, Japan’s number one super app has launched its own NFT marketplace, adding to its list of crypto-ready features.

Japan’s largest social media app, Line has officially launched its own non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace called LINE NFT.

Partnering with Yoshimoto Kogyo, a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate — the LVC Corporation, Line’s crypto and blockchain manager — will offer approximately 40,000 different NFTs to its 90 million users.

The first wave of soon-to-be-released NFTs will include videos from the company’s in-house, Yoshimoto NFT Theatre, as well depictions of characters from well-known anime series, Patlabor the Mobile Police, with more to come on offer in the coming months.

Also NFTs from the iconic anime series Patlabor the Mobile Police, and NFTs of other popular characters. At a later point, more #NFTs from a variety of genres will be available.#nftigoo #NFTanime pic.twitter.com/32ZGRbt0Lb
— Nftigoo (@nftigoo) April 13, 2022

Users will store their purchased NFTs in the LINE BitMa wallet, a product offered in conjunction with crypto-exchange BitMax.

The app adds NFT capabilities to a growing list of crypto-ready features, after introducing the option of allowing users to pay for items with its native LINK token (LN) at any of LINE Pay’s online merchants, earlier this year.

Line has a reputation for being among the first major technology companies in Japan to adopt cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, after launching its very own crypto exchange in 2018.

NFTs are becoming increasingly popular throughout Japan, despite the country’s relatively strict crypto regulations. The Japanese financial services conglomerate Nomura Holdings is the latest major player in the country to develop an action plan for implementing NFTs.

Earlier this year, major Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten announced the launch of its own NFT trading platform, dubbed Rakuten NFT.

Report: Softbank’s Internet Firm Z Holdings Plans to Launch NFT Mall in 180 Countries

March 10, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Japan-based messaging app will offer trial run of native token starting in March

February 8, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Business

LINE Pay said it was considering adding other cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ether to its payments options in the future

Users of Japanese messaging giant LINE will soon be able to use the app’s native token for payments at select online merchants in a limited trial.

In a Tuesday announcement, the LINE Corporation said that starting on March 16, users would have the option of paying with native LINK token (LN) — not to be confused with Chainlink (LINK) — at any of LINE Pay’s online merchants. The trial period, which will run until Dec. 26, is aimed at testing real-life use cases for the tokens in addition to increasing the convenience and number of payment options for users.

LINE Pay said it was considering adding other cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) to its payments options in the future, in addition to strengthening its partnerships with blockchain firms. Data from Statista shows there were 86 million monthly active LINE users as of the third quarter of 2020 — more than 68% of the country’s population of 126 million.

Launched in August 2018, the LN token is currently trading at $142.78, having risen by roughly 22% in the last 7 days. The token has been available for trading on crypto exchange Bitmax following an August 2020 agreement. As of the end of 2021, there were 30 crypto exchange businesses operating in Japan that had been approved by the country’s Financial Services Agency.

A consortium of Japan-based financial institutions and major corporations announced in November that they planned to trial and launch a yen-based digital currency in fiscal 2022. The country’s central bank, the Bank of Japan, is still in the research phase of developing a digital yen, expecting to complete its first trials by March.

Yahoo! Japan works with Line to launch NFT trading

July 27, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Yahoo! Japan collaborates with messaging giant Line to enable secondary trading of NFTs issued on Line’s proprietary blockchain.

Major Japanese internet company Yahoo! Japan has partnered with messaging giant Line to launch nonfungible token (NFT) trading.

Line officially announced Tuesday that its cryptocurrency-focused subsidiary LVC Corporation would collaborate with Yahoo! Japan to enable secondary trading of NFTs issued on Line’s proprietary blockchain.

As part of the partnership, Yahoo! Japan would place Line blockchain-based NFTs on its online auction service Yahoo! Auctions, a service set up by the company back in 1998 to compete with e-commerce giant eBay.

To enable NFT trading on the platform, the two partners would integrate Yahoo! Auctions with the Line Bitmax wallet, Line’s proprietary blockchain wallet designed for managing digital assets, including NFTs. The collaboration will enable users to trade NFTs managed through the Line Bitmax wallet directly on Yahoo! Auctions. According to the announcement, the companies expect to launch NFT trading on Yahoo! Auctions by late 2021.

“We will work with other partners to revitalize the distribution of valuable content and contribute to the expansion of the secondary distribution market in the NFT industry,” the announcement notes.

The announcement comes soon after Line launched the NFT Market Beta Service on its Line Bitmax wallet in late June.

As previously reported, Yahoo! Japan has been an active player in the cryptocurrency industry in Japan. The company is known for backing Taotao; a major local cryptocurrency exchange launched in 2019. The exchange was acquired by Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings last October.

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