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, broadcasts 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 by way of 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 completely 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 business by transferring 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 online 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. Additionally it is the very 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 Occasions Graphic Books bestseller record and promoting over 10 million copies globally.
Anime (Streaming): Solo Leveling’s anime adaptation stormed streaming platforms, changing 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.
Sport: 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 #1 in downloads in 141 international locations; #1 in income in 21 international locations; and #1 in App Retailer recognition rankings throughout 78 international locations.
Reside 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 steer the challenge as protagonist Sung Jinwook.

These feats illustrate Solo Leveling’s unmatched multi-format success and passionate worldwide fanbase. Now, by venturing onto the blockchain, Solo Leveling is poised to redefine how a contemporary franchise can have interaction its group 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 observe, this implies choose components of the Solo Leveling IP (e.g. characters, universe, and content material rights) might be represented onchain and managed by way of sensible contracts.

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

“Korea has all the time been a world launchpad for mental property. Past early distinctive cultural IP from Ok-pop, Ok-drama, Korea is main the way in which in gaming, webtoons and Hollywood heavy-hitters reminiscent of 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 needs to be programmable. Which means IP that may be tokenized, composable, and monetized throughout video games, AI fashions, and shopper functions”, stated SY Lee, co-founder and CEO of Story. “Registering Solo Leveling’s IP onchain, would unlock the following stage of engagement, loyalty, and monetization enabling remix tradition, fan-powered economies, and token-native codecs that weren’t doable earlier than.”

Official Solo Leveling IP-backed Memecoin on the Horizon

In a daring crypto-native twist, the Solo Leveling group 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 instantly 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 kind, an idea that would remodel group engagement and fandom in Web3.

Not like typical memecoins that usually emerge from web jokes with no ties to creators, this Solo Leveling coin will likely be approved and supported by the IP house owners. 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 all the time 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 may permit followers and creators to affix Solo Leveling’s subsequent chapter in new methods.” – Jungsook Jang, CEO at Redice Studio.

Bringing Solo Leveling onchain may 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 change into the go-to infrastructure for the $80 trillion IP business within the age of AI and crypto. The Solo Leveling partnership is anticipated to drive important exercise to Story’s ecosystem together with new consumer onboarding (tens of millions of followers interested by crypto) to builders constructing ecosystem dApps leveraging the IP.

With Solo Leveling’s fanbase and content material now linked to Story’s purpose-built IP-blockchain, the stage is ready for groundbreaking experiments on the intersection of fandom and web3. Group-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 house owners (like Solo Leveling’s creators) have a template for the right way to 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 truthful attribution, remixing, and monetization of inventive works onchain. The community’s native $IP token powers transactions and governance. Backed by main buyers (together with a16z Crypto), Story is constructing an AI-native infrastructure to unlock the total worth of the $80T IP asset class story.basis.

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 world 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 revolutionary methods (like Story) to increase the franchise and have interaction followers worldwide.

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