In an effort to focus on its other blockchain ventures, Japan’s Line is shutting down its U.S. exchange Bitfront. The messaging company said in a notice to customers that new signups have been suspended as of today, and services will be slowly turned off over the next four months.
LINE Corporation, the company behind the LINE messaging app, has announced that it is shutting down its cryptocurrency exchange BITFRONT.
In a notice posted on the BITFRONT website, LINE said that the decision to shut down the exchange had been taken in the best interest of its other projects.
LINE runs the LINE blockchain system and the Link (LN) token, and the company said that it needs to focus on these projects in order to continue growing the LINE blockchain ecosystem and LINK token economy.
The BITFRONT website will be shut down on October 23, 2019, and all user accounts will be closed. LINE said that it will refund any remaining balances in BITFRONT accounts to users within the next few weeks.
At present, the plan outlined by Line is for Bitfront’s services to wind down through December and for withdrawals to eventually be suspended on March 31, 2023. Tokyo-based Line is best known for running the popular communications app of the same name. The app also offers users other services such as news, entertainment, and payments. In January, Line announced that it was shutting down its cryptocurrency exchange Bitfront and would refund users their balances. The shutdown was due to “the difficulty of expanding the crypto business.”
