Asia Market Brief: Wingbits Flight Tracker Secures Korean Air as Initial Key Airline Partner

Korean Air has teamed up with Swedish DePIN startup Wingbits to access encrypted, real-time flight-tracking data for research into advanced air mobility. The collaboration marks a significant step in the airline’s exploration of drones, cargo aircraft, and future eVTOL taxis.

Under the research agreement, Wingbits will supply ADS-B data to Korean Air’s ACROSS air traffic coordination system, covering Korea’s Incheon FIR, North America, and Europe. The goal is to study how multiple air vehicles can safely share increasingly busy skies.

Wingbits operates a decentralized network of cryptographically secured ADS-B receivers, rewarding contributors with tokens for placing hardware in strategic locations. The startup raised $5.6 million in January in a round led by Bullish Capital, parent company of CoinDesk.

“Aviation relies heavily on this data, yet most networks offered it for free while major players were acquired for hundreds of millions with nothing going back to the community,” said Wingbits co-founder Robin Wingårdh at Korea Blockchain Week.

Wingårdh highlighted that incentives drive better coverage:
“When contributors are properly rewarded, receivers are placed where they matter most—on rooftops, businesses, or high-demand areas. Coverage per antenna is more than double that of competitors.”

For Korean Air, the partnership is forward-looking. Its R&D division is testing applications for low-latency, secure flight data to support future air mobility systems.

“Flying taxis, cargo drones, and other urban air vehicles are coming, and current infrastructure can’t support tracking for this mix of aviation and advanced mobility,” Wingårdh added.

The agreement is Wingbits’ first airline partnership, signaling broader recognition of decentralized aviation infrastructure. It also demonstrates the potential for blockchain-backed data networks to underpin the next generation of urban air mobility.

Market Snapshot

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