Kaia and LINE: A perfect match for scaling crypto in Asia

Asia represents one of the most fertile grounds for crypto adoption globally. Home to billions of people, the region is mobile-first by default, with over 90% of internet users accessing the web through mobile devices. Consumers in Asia are already fluent in digital wallets, in-app rewards, and gamified experiences. In many ways, the core primitives of web3—ownership, incentives, and token economies—are simply a natural extension of behaviors that are already mainstream across the region.

But what’s been missing is seamless access and distribution at scale. That's where Kaia comes in.

Kaia is a new, EVM-compatible L1 born from the merger of Klaytn (Kakao’s blockchain effort) and Finschia (LINE’s blockchain effort). It’s designed to unlock crypto adoption by leveraging two of the continent’s leading super apps, LINE and KakaoTalk. 

In many Asian economies, where desktop internet infrastructure was limited and mobile leapfrogged legacy systems, LINE became the digital backbone of everyday life. With over 196 million monthly active users, LINE's penetration is near-universal across some of Asia’s most developed economies. It weaves together messaging, payments, gaming, commerce, and entertainment into a seamless user experience. 

LINE users already live inside digital economies. They send over a billion stickers per day, participate in gamified loyalty programs, and transact daily with LINE Points and LINE Pay. These behaviors mirror core crypto mechanics: digital assets, peer-to-peer value transfer, and tokenized incentives. 

Additionally, macro tailwinds strengthen Kaia’s opportunity. Many Asian markets (especially Japan) have been starved for yield, experiencing long periods of low or negative interest rates that have left consumers hungry for alternatives. Embedding stablecoin yield products, RWAs, and other DeFi experiences directly into the apps people already trust and use daily could unlock an entirely new class of on-chain users.

Kaia’s strategic partnership with LINE cements this opportunity. Through an exclusivity agreement, all blockchain activities within LINE—whether in payments, gaming, or identity—must route through Kaia’s infrastructure. 

This integration is already live through the launch of LINE’s Mini Dapp Portal: a seamless experience embedded directly inside LINE’s messaging interface. This turns the chat experience into a gateway for decentralized applications. More than 60 dApps have gone live on Kaia through the Portal since the Portal launched in early Q1 of this year.

Even with limited initial visibility—the Portal was tucked away, accessible only via a special link—the early traction has been strong: 

• Over 75 million accumulated participants in the LINE Mini Dapp ecosystem
• Over 41 million new wallets created
• 7.2 million unique users of LINE’s Mini Dapp Portal
• >10% paid user ratio across Mini Dapps
• $300+ ARPPU (Average Revenue Per Paying User) on the best-performing title
  
  

These early results have emboldened LINE’s broader crypto strategy. In the coming months, LINE intends to restructure its app to surface the Mini Dapp Portal directly on the main chat screen—where users spend the overwhelming majority of their time in app—expanding access to its full 196M monthly active users. Future integrations, including native stablecoin onramping, yield-bearing accounts, and tokenized RWA products, will be layered on top to drive more growth.

Kaia sits at the intersection of three powerful forces: a culturally primed consumer base, an unparalleled distribution platform, and a deeply aligned go-to-market partner. While the early traction is promising, it’s still early days for crypto adoption at scale in Asia. Long-term success will depend on expanding developer interest and maintaining user engagement. Nonetheless, we’re thrilled to support the team on their journey to bring crypto to the center of Asia’s digital economy.