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Japanese messaging giant LINE to launch its own cryptocurrency exchange
Japanese messaging giant LINE Corp. is the latest to jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, announcing today that it plans to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in July.
Called BITBOX, the exchange will offer more than “30 highly demanded cryptocurrencies” for users with support in 15 languages. Although LINE has not disclosed a full list of cryptocurrencies supported, according to a media release, a partial list includes market leaders such as bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.
In an age where cryptocurrency services have become common place, LINE is differentiating itself by offering a flat trading fee of 0.1 percent. By comparison, Coinbase Inc. charges 1 percent, and rates of 0.5 to 1.5 percent are common in the industry.
While offering a variety of coins and tokens at a low rate, BITBOX will not offer fiat money to cryptocurrency exchange services. But LINE did not rule out the ability to acquire crypto from LINE Pay, its competitor to services such as Google Pay, Samsung Pay, AliPay and others.
The service will be available globally with two notable exceptions, the U.S. and Japan. In both cases, it appears that LINE has excluded both due to regulatory issues, although as Coindesk notes, the company may still be attempting to obtain approval from Japan’s Financial Services Agency.
“As a key part of LINE’s new financial services, BITBOX shows our commitment to fulfilling the growing demand for more diverse financial options,” LINE Chief Executive Officer Idezawa Takeshi said. “With BITBOX, LINE users will be able to access cryptocurrencies more easily, while also being assured of state-of-art security measures to protect their assets.”
What’s lacking from the details is how the BITFOX will integrate with the LINE app. It presumably will, given that LINE’s existing financial services are all available within the main LINE app. But the company has offered separate apps before — for example, @LINE for business accounts and LINE TV for streaming.
At last count, LINE had 600 million registered users and 217 million active users and is the most popular messaging app in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan.
Image: LINE
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