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

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01Oct

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 history, announces a partnership with Story, spanning IP-backed memecoins and exploring onchain IP economics.

The global phenomenon Solo Leveling is breaking new ground by coming onchain via Story. In a move that bridges a blockbuster franchise with blockchain, Solo Leveling is exploring the issuance of a tokenized real-world asset (RWA), exploring an entirely new flavor of tokenized RWAs that differs from money market funds, equity offerings, and treasury vehicles that are typically represented in web3. 

Solo Leveling is working with Story to initiate steps toward onchain representation of select IP elements. This approach is intended to enable onchain programmability for select integrations, opening the door to future fan-driven remixing, blockchain-based experiences, both digital and real world, and next-gen licensing deals. The announcement cements Solo Leveling’s status as a cross-media juggernaut, and as a pioneer in its industry by moving its IP to Web3.

Before its Web3 debut, Solo Leveling has already proven itself a cultural titan across multiple formats:

  • Webnovel & Webtoon: Originating as a web novel and adapted 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 series with global influence. It is also the highest grossing webtoon and Korean webnovel in history.
  • Comic Book: The comic adaptation has been a breakout print hit, reaching #1 on the New York Times Graphic Books bestseller list and selling over 10 million copies globally.
  • Anime (Streaming): Solo Leveling’s anime adaptation stormed streaming platforms, becoming the most-watched anime in the history of Crunchyroll and ranking in Netflix’s weekly Top 10 in 11 countries upon debut (and clinching the #1 spot on Amazon Prime Video in Japan).
  • Anime (Awards): The series swept the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards with 9 honors at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, including the coveted Anime of the Year, a historic first for a manhwa-based show.
  • Game: The mobile RPG Solo Leveling: ARISE turned the franchise into an interactive experience, grossing approximately $70 million in its first month and attracting 50 million players within five months of launch. The game was number 1 in downloads in 141 countries; number 1 in revenue in 21 countries; and number 1 in App Store popularity rankings across 78 countries.
  • Live Action Series: Netflix is producing a live-action series adaptation of the global phenomenon “Solo Leveling,” with rising star Byeon Woo-seok attached to lead the project as protagonist Sung Jinwook.

These feats illustrate Solo Leveling’s unrivaled multi-format success and passionate worldwide fanbase. Now, by venturing onto the blockchain, Solo Leveling is poised to redefine how a modern franchise can engage its community and unlock new value with its content.

Webnovel and Webtoon to Web3

Solo Leveling is collaborating with Story, the world’s first blockchain network purpose-built for intellectual property, to begin steps toward onchain IP representation for select elements. Story tokenizes IP and makes it programmable, enabling new models of ownership, remix, and monetization for creators and fans. By onboarding Solo Leveling, Story is effectively aiming to demonstrate onchain representation for one of the world’s highest-value franchises. In practice, this means select elements of the Solo Leveling IP (e.g. characters, universe, and content rights) could be represented onchain and managed through smart contracts.

Once on Story, Solo Leveling’s IP would become machine-readable and enforceable onchain, allowing developers and fans to build with it under preset rules. For example, a creator could remix a Solo Leveling character into a game mod with automated royalties flowing back to the IP holders. Licensed merchandise could be tied to onchain provenance, and any third-party game or media using Solo Leveling content could seamlessly implement programmable licensing and revenue splits. In short, Solo Leveling’s move to Story unlocks a playground for community-driven innovation around the franchise, all secured by blockchain.

“Korea has always been a global launchpad for intellectual property. Beyond early unique cultural IP from K-pop, K-drama, Korea is leading the way in gaming, webtoons and Hollywood heavy-hitters such as Squid Games and Parasite. Solo Leveling is a perfect example of how Korean IP can transcend borders, dominate every format, and build massive global fandoms. IP shouldn’t just be watched or read, it should be programmable. That means IP that can be tokenized, composable, and monetized across games, AI models, and consumer applications”, said SY Lee, co-founder and CEO of Story. “Registering Solo Leveling’s IP onchain, would unlock the next level of engagement, loyalty, and monetization enabling remix culture, fan-powered economies, and token-native formats that weren’t possible before.”

Official Solo Leveling IP-backed Memecoin on the Horizon

In a bold crypto-native twist, the Solo Leveling team also revealed plans for an official IP-backed memecoin tied to the story’s universe and characters . This upcoming token (details and launch date TBA) will be directly backed by Solo Leveling’s characters and lore, making it one of the first memecoins anchored by a blockbuster franchise’s IP. Fans will effectively get to “own a piece” of the Solo Leveling saga in token form, a concept that could transform community engagement and fandom in Web3.

Unlike typical memecoins that often emerge from internet jokes with no ties to creators, this Solo Leveling coin will be authorized and supported by the IP owners. Built on Story’s infrastructure, it aims to align the token’s value with the franchise’s success: the more the story and its memes spread, the more both fans and creators can benefit. This approach follows a growing recognition that memes and viral content drive immense value (the memecoin market tops $100B), yet creators historically capture little of it. An official Solo Leveling coin would flip that script by channeling cultural hype into a token model designed to align fan engagement with the franchise’s success

“Solo Leveling has always been about leveling up, and now we’re looking to level up the franchise with Web3. With Story, we hope to see the IP expand beyond the series itself, which could allow fans and creators to join Solo Leveling’s next chapter in new ways.” – Jungsook Jang, CEO at Redice Studio.

Bringing Solo Leveling onchain could mark a watershed moment for Story and the broader concept of tokenized IP. Solo Leveling is exploring phased registration of select IP elements, reflecting how one of the highest-value franchises is beginning to approach blockchain representation. For Story, this is a massive validation of its network’s vision: to become the go-to infrastructure for the $80 trillion IP industry in the age of AI and crypto. The Solo Leveling partnership is expected to drive significant activity to Story’s ecosystem including new user onboarding (millions of fans curious about crypto) to developers building ecosystem dApps leveraging the IP.

With Solo Leveling’s fanbase and content now connected to Story’s purpose-built IP-blockchain, the stage is set for groundbreaking experiments at the intersection of fandom and web3. Community-created art, games, NFTs, and story expansions can bloom under clear rights and royalty rules. Memecoin enthusiasts can rally around a token that has real narrative backing. And IP owners (like Solo Leveling’s creators) have a template for how to extend their works into Web3 while retaining control and revenue share.

About Story: Story is a layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for intellectual property. It provides a decentralized registry for creators to tokenize their IP and set programmable licensing terms, enabling fair attribution, remixing, and monetization of creative works onchain. The network’s native $IP token powers transactions and governance. Backed by leading investors (including a16z Crypto), Story is building an AI-native infrastructure to unlock the full value of the $80T IP asset class story.foundation.

About Solo Leveling / Redice Studio: Solo Leveling is a South Korean fantasy franchise that began as a webnovel by Chugong and became a smash-hit webtoon illustrated by Redice Studio. Since its 2016 debut, Solo Leveling has grown into a global IP spanning comics, animation, games, and more – garnering over ten billions of reads and a massive international fandom. Redice Studio is renowned for its stunning visuals and has been instrumental in expanding Solo Leveling’s universe. Together with its partners, Redice continues to explore innovative ways (like Story) to expand the franchise and engage fans worldwide.

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