LINE launches $10M blockchain venture fund, lists TRON on BITBOX cryptocurrency exchange

Chat giant LINE subsidiary Unblock has launched a $10 million fund for investing in early-stage blockchain startups.

Launched in April, Unblock marks LINE’s first venture into the blockchain space. The “Unblock Ventures” token fund focuses on token investments and has a capital commitment of $10 million, made by LVC Corporation, another LINE group company. The fund is expected to expand in the future, according to the growth of the blockchain market.

“By launching this new corporate token fund, LINE is aiming to boost the development and adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. As such, LINE is one of the first publicly traded corporations to formalize token investments through a corporate fund,” LINE said.

Alongside the launch of Unblock Ventures, LINE announced that it has added TRON (TRX) to BITBOX, its recently launched cryptocurrency exchange. TRON (TRX), one the top 15 cryptocurrencies by market cap, is the first coin project to pass the review process by the BITBOX open-listing committee. As a promotional event, LINE announced a 9 million TRX airdrop event which will run until August 22.

“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.”

LINE said that BITBOX is now accepting applications from other coin projects that want to list on the exchange.