Chiru Labs, the Web3 company behind non-fungible token (NFT) collections Azuki and BEANZ, and IPX, the parent company of the popular character collection LINE FRIENDS, has announced a strategic partnership today to create new opportunities for their brands and fans.

The two companies will collaborate on content, merchandise, retail distribution, real-life activations and immersive metaverse experiences, initially focusing on the BEANZ NFTs and LINE FRIENDS characters.

IPX has grown from LINE FRIENDS, which originated as stickers within the LINE messaging app, into an innovative intellectual property (IP) brand and has partnered with companies such as Starbucks, Netflix and McDonalds as well as K-Pop band BTS. To celebrate the partnership, a billboard above the LINE FRIENDS store in Times Square will show an animation of some of the LINE FRIENDS characters during NFT.NYC this week.

Chiru Labs is best known for its anime-inspired NFT collection Azuki, which has netted 470,994 ETH (roughly $887,824,000 as of writing) in trading volume since its launch in Jan. 2022, according to OpenSea. The company also made headlines for pioneering “physical backed tokens” (PBTs) as part of a sale of eight NFT-backed golden skateboards which raised $2.5 million.

(By Toby Bochan)