LG Electronics Partners with Arbitrum for New Blockchain-Based Digital Ad Platform

LG Electronics developed its own layer-2 blockchain network in collaboration with Arbitrum to power a new digital advertising platform.

The South Korean consumer electronics giant told Fortune that the Arbitrum-based network will serve as a platform for placing, buying, selling, and managing digital ads, eliminating traditional intermediaries in the advertising supply chain. LG completed a pilot program with a Japanese advertising agency and is now evaluating whether to bring the product to market later this year.

“We are evaluating whether this approach can deliver meaningful value to advertisers, publishers and audiences,” Samuel Byungsun Park, leader of LG Electronics’ blockchain research department, said in a statement.

Arbitrum co-founder Steven Goldfeder said the blockchain approach removes the need for manual interventions in ad transactions. "You don't need manual interventions," Goldfeder said, explaining that the technology enables automated market operations through software.

Arbitrum's native token ARB jumped 5% following news of the LG Electronics partnership, per CoinGecko data.

The advertising blockchain represents LG's latest foray into distributed ledger technology. The company's IT services arm LG CNS introduced the Monachain enterprise blockchain platform in 2018, though LG shuttered its Art Lab NFT marketplace last year. The new initiative leverages LG Ad Solutions, the company's advertising division that manages a global smart TV installed base of 216 million units, including 49 million in the United States.

LG joins a growing list of major corporations building custom blockchain infrastructure for business applications, including Samsung’s supply chain ledger, JP Morgan’s JPM Coin deposit token and Mastercard’s stablecoin settlement infrastructure—which are increasingly settled on public or Layer-2 chains rather than private permissioned ledgers.