Solo Leveling Levels Up: Korean Billion-Dollar Megafranchise Goes Onchain with Story

Seoul, South Korea, October 1st, 2025, Chainwire

Korea’s highest-grossing webnovel and webtoon, and the most-watched anime in Crunchyroll historical past, proclaims a partnership with Story, spanning IP-backed memecoins and exploring onchain IP economics.

The worldwide phenomenon Solo Leveling is breaking new floor by coming onchain through Story. In a transfer that bridges a blockbuster franchise with blockchain, Solo Leveling is exploring the issuance of a tokenized real-world asset (RWA), exploring a wholly new taste of tokenized RWAs that differs from cash market funds, fairness choices, and treasury autos which are usually represented in web3. 

Solo Leveling is working with Story to provoke steps towards onchain illustration of choose IP components. This strategy is meant to allow onchain programmability for choose integrations, opening the door to future fan-driven remixing, blockchain-based experiences, each digital and actual world, and next-gen licensing offers. The announcement cements Solo Leveling’s standing as a cross-media juggernaut, and as a pioneer in its trade by shifting its IP to Web3.

Earlier than its Web3 debut, Solo Leveling has already confirmed itself a cultural titan throughout a number of codecs:

• Webnovel & Webtoon: Originating as an internet novel and tailored as webtoon in Korea, Solo Leveling amassed over 14+ billion views worldwide, 175+ million readers, an unprecedented achievement that solidified it as a flagship Korean collection with international affect. It’s also the best grossing webtoon and Korean webnovel in historical past.
• Comedian Guide: The comedian adaptation has been a breakout print hit, reaching #1 on the New York Instances Graphic Books bestseller listing and promoting over 10 million copies globally.
• Anime (Streaming): Solo Leveling’s anime adaptation stormed streaming platforms, turning into the most-watched anime within the historical past of Crunchyroll and rating in Netflix’s weekly Prime 10 in 11 international locations upon debut (and clinching the #1 spot on Amazon Prime Video in Japan).
• Anime (Awards): The collection swept the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards with 9 honors on the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, together with the coveted Anime of the 12 months, a historic first for a manhwa-based present.
• Recreation: The cellular RPG Solo Leveling: ARISE turned the franchise into an interactive expertise, grossing roughly $70 million in its first month and attracting 50 million gamers inside 5 months of launch. The sport was number one in downloads in 141 international locations; number one in income in 21 international locations; and number one in App Retailer reputation rankings throughout 78 international locations.
• Stay Motion Sequence: Netflix is producing a live-action collection adaptation of the worldwide phenomenon “Solo Leveling,” with rising star Byeon Woo-seok hooked up to guide the undertaking as protagonist Sung Jinwook.

These feats illustrate Solo Leveling’s unequalled multi-format success and passionate worldwide fanbase. Now, by venturing onto the blockchain, Solo Leveling is poised to redefine how a contemporary franchise can interact its neighborhood and unlock new worth with its content material.

Webnovel and Webtoon to Web3

Solo Leveling is collaborating with Story, the world’s first blockchain community purpose-built for mental property, to start steps towards onchain IP illustration for choose components. Story tokenizes IP and makes it programmable, enabling new fashions of possession, remix, and monetization for creators and followers. By onboarding Solo Leveling, Story is successfully aiming to display onchain illustration for one of many world’s highest-value franchises. In apply, this implies choose components of the Solo Leveling IP (e.g. characters, universe, and content material rights) may very well be represented onchain and managed by good contracts.

As soon as on Story, Solo Leveling’s IP would turn into machine-readable and enforceable onchain, permitting builders and followers to construct with it underneath preset guidelines. For instance, a creator might remix a Solo Leveling character right into a recreation mod with automated royalties flowing again to the IP holders. Licensed merchandise may very well be tied to onchain provenance, and any third-party recreation or media utilizing Solo Leveling content material might seamlessly implement programmable licensing and income splits. Briefly, Solo Leveling’s transfer to Story unlocks a playground for community-driven innovation across the franchise, all secured by blockchain.

“Korea has at all times been a worldwide launchpad for mental property. Past early distinctive cultural IP from Okay-pop, Okay-drama, Korea is main the way in which in gaming, webtoons and Hollywood heavy-hitters resembling Squid Video games and Parasite. Solo Leveling is an ideal instance of how Korean IP can transcend borders, dominate each format, and construct large international fandoms. IP shouldn’t simply be watched or learn, it ought to be programmable. Which means IP that may be tokenized, composable, and monetized throughout video games, AI fashions, and shopper purposes”, mentioned SY Lee, co-founder and CEO of Story. “Registering Solo Leveling’s IP onchain, would unlock the subsequent stage of engagement, loyalty, and monetization enabling remix tradition, fan-powered economies, and token-native codecs that weren’t attainable earlier than.”

Official Solo Leveling IP-backed Memecoin on the Horizon

In a daring crypto-native twist, the Solo Leveling workforce additionally revealed plans for an official IP-backed memecoin tied to the story’s universe and characters . This upcoming token (particulars and launch date TBA) will likely be straight backed by Solo Leveling’s characters and lore, making it one of many first memecoins anchored by a blockbuster franchise’s IP. Followers will successfully get to “personal a bit” of the Solo Leveling saga in token type, an idea that would rework neighborhood engagement and fandom in Web3.

Not like typical memecoins that always emerge from web jokes with no ties to creators, this Solo Leveling coin will likely be approved and supported by the IP homeowners. Constructed on Story’s infrastructure, it goals to align the token’s worth with the franchise’s success: the extra the story and its memes unfold, the extra each followers and creators can profit. This strategy follows a rising recognition that memes and viral content material drive immense worth (the memecoin market tops $100B), but creators traditionally seize little of it. An official Solo Leveling coin would flip that script by channeling cultural hype right into a token mannequin designed to align fan engagement with the franchise’s success

“Solo Leveling has at all times been about leveling up, and now we’re trying to stage up the franchise with Web3. With Story, we hope to see the IP increase past the collection itself, which might enable followers and creators to affix Solo Leveling’s subsequent chapter in new methods.” – Jungsook Jang, CEO at Redice Studio.

Bringing Solo Leveling onchain might mark a watershed second for Story and the broader idea of tokenized IP. Solo Leveling is exploring phased registration of choose IP components, reflecting how one of many highest-value franchises is starting to strategy blockchain illustration. For Story, this can be a large validation of its community’s imaginative and prescient: to turn into the go-to infrastructure for the $80 trillion IP trade within the age of AI and crypto. The Solo Leveling partnership is predicted to drive vital exercise to Story’s ecosystem together with new person onboarding (tens of millions of followers inquisitive about crypto) to builders constructing ecosystem dApps leveraging the IP.

With Solo Leveling’s fanbase and content material now related to Story’s purpose-built IP-blockchain, the stage is about for groundbreaking experiments on the intersection of fandom and web3. Neighborhood-created artwork, video games, NFTs, and story expansions can bloom underneath clear rights and royalty guidelines. Memecoin fans can rally round a token that has actual narrative backing. And IP homeowners (like Solo Leveling’s creators) have a template for how you can prolong their works into Web3 whereas retaining management and income share.

About Story: Story is a layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for mental property. It gives a decentralized registry for creators to tokenize their IP and set programmable licensing phrases, enabling honest attribution, remixing, and monetization of artistic works onchain. The community’s native $IP token powers transactions and governance. Backed by main traders (together with a16z Crypto), Story is constructing an AI-native infrastructure to unlock the total worth of the $80T IP asset class story.foundation.

About Solo Leveling / Redice Studio: Solo Leveling is a South Korean fantasy franchise that started as a webnovel by Chugong and have become a smash-hit webtoon illustrated by Redice Studio. Since its 2016 debut, Solo Leveling has grown into a worldwide IP spanning comics, animation, video games, and extra – garnering over ten billions of reads and an enormous worldwide fandom. Redice Studio is famend for its gorgeous visuals and has been instrumental in increasing Solo Leveling’s universe. Along with its companions, Redice continues to discover modern methods (like Story) to increase the franchise and have interaction followers worldwide.

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