Naver Corp. took its rivalry with Kakao Corp. to crypto stage by listing its digital asset LINK on Bithumb, one of the country’s major cryptocurrency exchanges where Kakao’s digital coin KLAY has been in trade since May.

LINK issued by LINE Tech Plus in Singapore under Naver’s Japanese subsidiary LINE will be available on Bithumb’s BTC market from Aug. 13, according to the exchange operator on Wednesday.

LINK first issued in 2018 has been distributed within the LINE ecosystem mostly in Japan. With the listing, Korea where its parent company is located will become its first destination for external expansion of the ecosystem.

A LINE official said the biggest purpose of listing the digital asset on the Korean crypto exchange is to increase its overall liquidity as many investors can get interested. But the listing also means faceoff with its platform archrival Kakao in the emerging virtual asset market.

The two companies already pitted against each other through their affiliates - Line Plus and Ground X – to win a 10-month test project for the Bank of Korea’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). Line Plus is affiliated with Naver and Ground X with Kakao.

Kakao outbid Naver in the latest duel, but their competition is expected to get fiercer across the entire virtual asset ecosystem in the future. The next battlefield may be a non-fungible token project.

Ground X is active in NFT business through its asset Klip Drops, while LINE recently announced in its 2021 business plan that it will expand services that utilize NFT technology.

By Pulse

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