Japan’s Line launches $10m token venture fund

Line has been diversifying its operations

Japanese internet company Line Corporation signalled it is moving further into cryptocurrencies, with its launch of a $10m corporate token venture fund.

Line also announced that its recently-launched cryptocurrency exchange, Bitbox, has added Tron (TRX) to its platform. Nine million Tron tokens will be airdropped for Bitbox users between now and August 22nd.

Line subsidiary Unblock Corporation is launching the new fund, Unlock Ventures Ltd, which will focus on token investments that encourage the adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain and may receive additional funding “according to the growth of the blockchain market”.

Heewoo Lee has been appointed CEO of Unblock Ventures and the Hong Kong-based fund will use capital provided by another one of Line’s companies – LVC Corporation – to support innovative blockchain startups.

A growing portfolio

Line has more than 200m monthly users across Asia, and while it is still best-known for its messaging app it has added a growing list of services including mobile payments, ride-hailing, deliveries and more.

In May, the company announced that it was to build a decentralised app (dApp) ecosystem for South Korean network Icon’s cross-blockchain platform.