LINE adds TRON (TRX) to BitBox, launches crypto investment fund
A new listing, a new airdrop and a new early-stage project investment fund.
LINE is one of the world's most popular messaging apps. It's become known for its many diversification efforts in the recent past, including launching its own cryptocurrency exchange, BitBox and partnering with ICON (ICX).
It's delving further into the cryptocurrency world now, with the launch of a cryptocurrency investment fund, unblock ventures ltd announced. The firm is a corporate token venture fund, which will be operated by a blockchain subsidiary of LINE.
"By launching this new corporate token fund, LINE is aiming to boost the development and adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology," it explained in its release. "As such, LINE is one of the first publicly traded corporations to formalise token investments through a corporate fund."
It's starting off with a relatively modest $10 million capital commitment from LVC Corporate, another LINE subsidiary. It's expected to expand in the future though, the company says, and grow alongside the general blockchain and cryptocurrency market.
The fund will be based in Hong Kong, one of Asia's leading cryptocurrency and blockchain tech cities.
At the same time, it's also announced plans to add TRON (TRX) to the BitBox exchange, along with a celebratory 9 million TRX (about US$185,000 worth) airdrop for users of the platform.
"Integrating TRON (TRX) with BITBOX will enable us to connect with the world's fastest-growing blockchain project," said Youngsu Ko, CEO of LINE Tech Plus, LINE's Singapore-based subsidiary that operates BITBOX. "TRON has a solid tech platform, especially now it has joined forces with BitTorrent. We look forward to building a strategic partnership with TRON and offering our users the best experience available in the cryptocurrency space."
"We are very excited to partner with LINE on their launch into the cryptocurrency space," said TRON founder and CEO Justin Sun. "We will use our expertise in the industry to help LINE provide fast and secure cutting-edge crypto exchange services. By joining this vibrant project, we aim to reach a broader audience, extend our services to mobile, and connect the dots with our other products, which have more than 100 million users (BitTorrent, Peiwo, etc.). We are looking forward to working further with LINE on more product integration."
Much like almost all of the most prominent cryptocurrency projects coming out of China and Hong Kong, TRON uses a delegated proof of stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism to allow a small group of entities (27 in the case of TRON) complete control of the network. Other popular China-focused cryptocurrencies using DPoS include EOS and NEO.
This might be a palatable compromise for cryptocurrencies that want a cosmetic level of decentralisation while still being able to respond to the orders of the Chinese government or rich stakeholders.
Disclosure: At the time of writing the author holds ETH, IOTA, ICX, VET, XLM, BTC, ADA
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