LINE NEXT raises $140 million for NFT push

LINE NEXT, the LINE messenger operator’s subsidiary focused on non-fungible tokens, has attracted $140 million to “popularise Web3-ecosystems”.

The funding round was led by Crescendo Equity Partners, the Peter Thiel-linked firm. It will join the Finschia Foundation as a board member.

The group plans to launch the global NFT platform DOSI in January 2024.

“Integrating with the Japanese NFT marketplace LINE NFT, DOSI will become a mobile application for users worldwide”, the press release said.

The LINE NEXT team plans to help brands transfer ownership of digital products and enable trading of them. Services will be based on the public Finschia blockchain.

There are also plans to create Web3 games featuring existing characters such as BROWN & FRIENDS.

“We hope to create a standard for Web3 applications and bring blockchain to all kinds of services and brands in Web2,” — said Kevin Li, managing partner at Crescendo.

LINE launched an NFT marketplace in April 2022.

In November of the same year, the company announced that its affiliated Bitcoin exchange Bitfront would cease operations as of March 31, 2023.