LINE’s LINK Cryptocurrency Not Yet Available to US and Japanese Customers

LINE Corporation has launched its new virtual currency, called LINK, but users in Japan and the United States still cannot use the cryptocurrency due to pending licensing requirements.

LINE’s US and Japanese Customers Will Have to Wait

The Japanese LINE Corporation will have to wait for its LINK tokens to be used by its customers, because its chosen digital currency exchange, BitBox, has not yet been approved by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). A pending license from the FSA will mean that its LINK token cannot be used by customers based in Japan and the United States.

However, the company is in luck, as Toshihide Endo, the new head of the FSA, has reiterated the regulatory body’s positive stance on the digital currency industry.

“We have no intention to curb (the crypto industry) excessively,” said Endo in August. “We would like to see it grow under appropriate regulation.”

BitBox’s present unresolved licensing creates uncertainty as to whether the crypto exchange is allowed to operate in LINE Corporation’s other key Asian markets such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan. In August, Thailand’s SEC approved the operation of seven cryptocurrency exchanges, but BitBox wasn’t involved.

As the company awaits BitBox’s approval in Japan, there are plans in place to remedy the situation. ‘LINK Points’ will act as temporary substitutes for the new tokens. When the FSA officially authorizes the crypto exchange, users can exchange the Link Points for LINK tokens.

According to the company, the new tokens will act as a reward system for users and can be used to carry out different transactions. These LINKs will be earned when customers make use of specific contents offered by LINE. Sometime this month, LINE Corp. plans to release its first dApps.

Suggested Reading : Check out two competing dApp platforms in our Ethereum vs EOS cryptocurrency comparison.

The LINK Cryptocurrency

At the end of last month (August 31), it was announced that LINE Corporation had launched a new blockchain network called LINK Chain, along with a digital currency called LINK. LINE independently developed the new blockchain network and the virtual currency.

The messaging company is not new to the cryptocurrency and blockchain scene. In June, LINE announced plans to establish a digital currency exchange in Singapore known as BitBox. Users can trade over thirty different virtual currencies on the exchange.

On July 17, the company finally launched BitBox. The exchange is said to support Bitcoin, and other top altcoins such as Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash, among many others.