Huobi-invested startup Whole Network plans to launch its blockchain-powered smartphone Acute Angle in Southeast Asia next week.

Official launch is imminent

The new blockchain phone was already available to some users in China, but the actual launch of Acute Angle is scheduled for next week as part of the sixth Huobi Prime launch, according to a Finance Magnates report on Sept. 3.

Priced at around $500, Acute Angle smartphone can be purchased with the exchange’s native Huobi Token (HT). The Acute Angle phone is produced by the Whole Network startup that Huobi invested in. The Whole Network’s NODE token will also be listed on Huobi Prime from Sept. 11.

The product is planned for distribution across Southeast Asia by the end of 2019, the report notes. Whole Network is also planning to expand its new product to Europe and the United States if the launch is successful.

Livio Weng, CEO at Huobi Global, stated that blockchain phones are a promising direction for future blockchain industry development, stressing that similar initiatives will only grow in the future.

“As the industry develops and as innovations like 5G become increasingly integrated into our telecommunications systems, we believe more and more crypto communities will want to trade and transact from mobile devices.”

Whole Network (NODE) launch

The news comes as Huobi prepares to release its sixth Huobi Prime project, Whole Network (NODE) on Sept. 11.

In the introduction to the project published on Sept. 1, Huobi wrote that Whole Network will be based on the value generated by user behavior, with the help of hardware terminals and incentives in order to build a "behavioral value" network. Per the announcement, NODE’s supply will be limited to 10 billion tokens, while total prime release will account for 7.5% of total tokens.

Update: This article was corrected to clarify that Huobi is an early stage investor in Whole Network, but was not in charge and did not collaborate with the development of the phone.