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

Japan’s top social network and messaging app, LINE, has launched a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The new service allows 90 million LINE users to send and exchange NFTs with their friends.

LVC Corp., the operator of LINE’s crypto asset and blockchain businesses, announced Wednesday that it has launched LINE NFT, a non-fungible token marketplace available only in Japan. LINE described itself as “the fastest-growing mobile messenger app in the world.” It offers free messages, voice calls, and video calls.

“From today, LINE NFT will offer around 40,000 NFT products for sale, including Yoshimoto NFT Theater,” the announcement notes, adding that “Users can store purchased NFTs in their LINE Bitmax wallet.”

Yoshimoto NFT Theater comprises NFTs of videos by Yoshimoto Kogyo Holdings Co. Ltd. Bitmax is a cryptocurrency exchange launched by LINE in September 2019. It is accessible through the LINE app.

The announcement further details:

Through the LINE app — with a userbase of approximately 90 million in Japan — they can conveniently send or exchange NFTs with their LINE friends.

The LINE NFT marketplace will also offer NFTs of popular characters — including Gyuunyuu, Usagyuuun, and Betakkuma — and NFTs from the anime series “Patlabor: The Mobile Police.” The company added that more NFTs “from many different genres will be offered at a later date.”

Emphasizing the concept of “LINE Blockchain Designed For Everyone,” LVC Corp. said that going forward it aims to “provide NFT and other blockchain services and technologies that can be applied practically to users’ daily lives.”

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is also launching an NFT marketplace. “Rakuten NFT is a service that provides a marketplace for users to purchase NFTs, as well as peer-to-peer buying and selling of NFTs, in a range of areas such as sports and entertainment, including music and anime,” the company described in an announcement on Feb. 25. “A service for peer-to-peer issuing and selling of NFT content is planned for launch in 2023 or later.”

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