April 19, 2024

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Korbit’s metaverse platform Korbit Town. (Korbit)

Korbit, a local cryptocurrency exchange, said on Nov. 8 that it had adopted a “play to earn” scheme as part of efforts to upgrade its nascent metaverse platform.

Play to Earn, commonly known as P2E, is a system in which players can gain rewards for playing games within the platform. Korbit’s attempt to incorporate P2E is a move meant to attract not only cryptocurrency traders, but also to reflect growing interest in the metaverse.

“In Korbit Town, people without any exposure to cryptocurrency exchanges can easily access virtual assets. We will continue to add various content that can allow customers to have fun beyond simple trading experiences,” Oh Se-jin, CEO of Korbit, said Nov. 8.

Aiming for a broader goal, Korbit said it plans to focus on revitalizing its metaverse ecosystem by allowing users to display nonfungible tokens they have purchased from a marketplace as well as by engaging with YouTube streamers in Korbit Town.

Earlier this year, Korbit launched an NFT marketplace. It has said that it is mulling various business models involving the metaverse and NFTs.

These efforts to incorporate digital assets such as NFTs and the metaverse are a strategic move to stay a step ahead of competitors in the fast-evolving digital asset space, according to the company. Despite having a head start as the first cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, Korbit is lagging behind the other three big exchanges in terms of transaction volume.

Experts say that cryptocurrency exchanges have great potential to go beyond the scope of cryptocurrency trading.

Last week during a NFT conference held in Busan, Mirae Asset Securities manager Lee Yong-jae predicted that cryptocurrency exchanges will evolve into superplatforms that deal with various types of digital assets beyond their primary functions as platforms for trading tokens.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)