Gaming Giant Nexon America Starts Accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum For In-Game Purchases

Source: AdobeStock / Igor Golovnev

Nexon America, an online gaming company and a subsidiary of South Korean gaming giant Nexon, announced on Tuesday that it has begun accepting a number of crypto assets for in-game purchases as part of a deal with major cryptocurrency payment processor BitPay.

This feature allows players to purchase in-game items using a range of popular digital assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), litecoin (LTC), and dogecoin (DOGE), as well as stablecoins such as binance USD (BUSD). , DAI and Gemini Dollar (GUSD), among others, according to a recent press release.

“Nexon is listening closely to our players’ feedback, including those who have asked us to include cryptocurrency as a form of in-game payment,” said Kenny Chang, CEO of Nexon America, adding:

“We are delighted to offer this innovative payment feature to our players with immediate effect.”

The announcement notes that the decision to accept crypto payments is unrelated to Nexon’s bitcoin holdings, which “are held as one of the company’s several currencies and are used for hedging purposes. [the] depreciation of fiat currency “.

For context, at the end of April, Nexon acquired $ 100 million worth of bitcoins at an average price of about $ 58,200 per coin, resulting in the company receiving 1,717 bitcoins (currently $ 83.83 million).

Notably, this move comes at a time when game developers are showing unprecedented interest in bringing cryptographic innovation to their games.

As previously reported, 72% of game developers said they are interested in using non-fungible tokens (NFT) and blockchain in new games. In the same survey, 47% of respondents said they already included NFT in their games.

Likewise, in its technology and media outlook for 2022, consultancy Activate Consulting said NFTs will continue their journey into a broader set of industries and become popular by 2022.

“As consumers spend more and more time on digital technology and interest in the metaverse, we believe every technology and media company will need an NFT strategy,” the company said.

Meanwhile, the trend towards the adoption of cryptocurrency payments is also gaining traction outside of the gaming industry. More recently, America-accredited non-profit online university UoPeople announced that it will provide students with the ability to pay for course fees in cryptoassets.

Praising the NFT’s anti-tampering feature, UoPeople said it will provide digital diplomas to its graduates through the NFT. The university also said it is integrating content about cryptocurrency and blockchain into its curriculum, as they are expected to play “an important role in the future of the financial world.”