SoftBank Messaging Giant To Launch NFT Marketplace in Japan

The marketplace, dubbed Line NFT, is slated to go live on April 13

March 23, 2022 01:08 pm

blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

key takeaways

The NFT marketplace will partner with video game developer Square Enix and entertainment franchise Yoshimoto Kogyo
Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company, announced its own marketplace for blockchain-based digital collectibles last month

Japanese messaging giant Line Corp. announced the launch of its forthcoming NFT marketplace on Wednesday.

The marketplace, which is slated to go live on April 13, will run on the LINE blockchain — the company’s proprietary network. Users can hold their digital collectibles in the company’s LINE BITMAX wallet.

The platform, called Line NFT, will sell over 100 kinds of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), per a Coinpost report. NFTs will be integrated as avatars for Line’s messaging services in the future.

The marketplace will partner with various Japanese companies including video game developer Square Enix, entertainment franchise Yoshimoto Kogyo and Patlabor.

Z Holdings, another subsidiary of SoftBank, will reportedly build a similar marketplace, DOSI, in 180 countries. Line’s platform, however, is separate from Z Holdings’ NFT plans.

“It’s possible Web3 will herald a world where life is completely different, and we don’t want the company to miss out on the huge growth opportunity,” Kentaro Kawabe, co-chief executive of Z Holdings, said in an interview.

The formation of both subsidiaries of the Japanese conglomerate follow closely on the heels of e-commerce company Rakuten’s NFT plans.

Rakuten announced its marketplace for blockchain-based assets on Feb. 25 and will allow users to buy, sell and trade cryptoassets based on Japanese manga and TV shows.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Newsletter

Blockworks Daily

Upcoming Events

Permissionless III Hackathon

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

learn more

Permissionless III

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

learn more

recent research

Research

Why Solana Mobile Should 100x Their Phone Production

Solana Mobile is a highly ambitious foray into the mobile consumer hardware market, seeking to open up a crypto-native distribution channel for mobile-first applications. The market for Solana Mobile devices has demonstrated a phenomenon whereby external market actors (e.g. Solana-native projects) continuously underwrite subsidies to Mobile consumers. The value of these subsidies, coming in the form of airdrops, trial programs, and exclusive NFT mints, have consistently covered the cost of the phone and generated positive returns for consumers. Given this trend in subsidies, the unit economics in the market for Mobile devices, and the initial growth rate and trajectory of sales, it should be expected that Solana mobile can clear 1M to 10M units over the coming years. As more devices circulate amongst users, Solana Mobile presents a promising venue for the emergence of killer-applications uniquely enabled by this mobile-first, crypto-native distribution channel.

by Luke Leasure