S. Korean Crypto Project Klaytn Will Offer Gas Fee Rebates to Gaming Firms

SINGAPORE — South Korean crypto project Klaytn would provide rebates on gas fee payments made by gaming companies building on its network, it said on Wednesday during the ongoing Token 2049 conference in Singapore.

Gas fees refer to payments made by users to execute blockchain-based transactions or commands. Fees on networks like Ethereum have reached over $3,000 per transaction during times of network congestion, which may push potential users away from the network toward cheaper options.

The feature addresses a crucial pain point for blockchain games in onboarding new users: The need to acquire tokens to foot gas fees before being able to play.

Under the new gas fee rebate program, selected game companies will be eligible for a 100% offset of their gas fees incurred from January 2022 onwards for up to $100,000 worth of KLAY per month. Names of these companies were not shared with CoinDesk at writing time.

The grant is derived from the Klaytn Growth Fund, a fund that invests in companies built on Klaytn and has previously committed some $20 million towards blockchain research at Asian universities.

As such, the move is part of a broader plan to expand outside of the Korean market, where it was initially based and acquired the first set of users, company executives had previously told CoinDesk. Klaytn locks over $324 million in crypto value on its blockchain, and its KLAY tokens have a market capitalization of just under $600 million.

Prices of KLAY tokens were down 6.1% in the past 24 hours, in line with a broader crypto market decline.