Top Korean Gaming Companies Race to Integrate Cryptocurrencies

Korean gaming giant Nexon announced on Tuesday the acquisition of Korbit, Korea’s first ever Bitcoin Exchange, the second largest in volume behind Bithumb.

Nexon’s holding company (NXC) announced its plans on Tuesday to acquire 125,000 shares of Korbit for 91.25 billion won (approximately US $80.3 million), giving it a 65.19 percent ownership stake in Korbit. The deal is being billed by Korea’s leading financial newspaper Hankyung as “the first large-scale merger & acquisition among domestic virtual currency-related companies.”

Many of Nexon’s games have an in-game store where players can buy time-limited digital goods, such as temporary upgrades, special avatars, pets, and other equipment for real cash. For certain games, the in-game shop offers a shop permit, which allows players to set up their own store inside the game’s “Free Market.”

Currently, gaming news hub MMO Examiner ranks Nexon’s AxE multiplayer RPG game as the top seller in the Korean Apple store, and second-highest on Korea’s Google Play store. The company’s best-known game, however, is still Maplestory, a multiplayer side-scrolling adventure that was first released in Japan in 2003 and still maintains a strong following. Tens of millions of gamers worldwide have played Maplestory, and the game has been influential in popularizing in-game digital purchases.

The currency used in all of Nexon’s in-game markets is its own virtual currency ‘NX’. The company-controlled currency pre-dates blockchains, and there was no mention in the announcement if NX coins would be traded on its new exchange along with cryptocurrencies.

Nexon’s Korean competitors are not content taking a wait-and-see approach, however, with Mgame Corp announcing on Thursday that it is launching a cryptocurrency exchange and mining business, adding that it planned to utilize its popular gaming portal to market a new cryptocurrency business. Mgame Corp plans to launch its new ventures later this year and has recently signed contracts with cryptocurrency mining hardware provider Coinsoop and payments provider Paytto.

Popular apps are also joining the trend. In August, Kakao Stock – a popular Korean securities trading app based on the country’s number one smartphone messenger app Kakao Talk – announced the launch of its own app-based bitcoin exchange inside its stock-trading program.

Kakao Stock’s operator, Dunamu also announced on September 26th  that it plans to launch a separate cryptocurrency exchange called Upbit. Through a partnership with the popular cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex, Dunamu says Upbit will list over 100 cryptocurrencies initially, making it more comparable to Poloniex than to existing Korean exchanges.

The company will use BitGo wallets for customer accounts and claims it will be the largest digital currency exchange in South Korea. Pre-registration for Upbit has begun, with a launch date scheduled for sometime in October.

Overall, bitcoin trading volumes in Korea have been rising steadily. The country currently ranks fourth in global bitcoin trading volumes and Korea’s largest bitcoin exchange, Bithumb, competes with Japan’s Bitflyer for the title of the world’s largest bitcoin exchange by volume. On August 19, Bithumbs daily trading volume surpassed the volume at leading Korean securities exchange Kosdaq.