Korbit, a local cryptocurrency exchange, said Monday that it 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 contents that can allow customers to have fun beyond simple trading experiences,” Oh Se-jin, CEO of Korbit said on Monday.

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

Earlier this year, Korbit launched a NFT marketplace, and 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 headstart as the first cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, Korbit is lagging behind the other three 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 the cryptocurrency exchanges will evolve into super platforms that deal with various types of digital assets beyond their primary functions as token trading platforms.

(gypark@heraldcorp.com)