Kim Jung-ju, the founder of Korea’s largest gaming firm, Nexon, died on Monday at the age of 54. He was a well-known businessman, investor, and philanthropist in South Korea.
According to reports citing Nexon’s holding company NXC, Jung-ju died on February 28 in Hawaii, United States. He was being treated for depression, and it looked that his conditions had just gotten worse. The corporation announced the news without elaborating on the circumstances surrounding his demise.
Nexon Co Ltd’s President and CEO, Owen Mahoney, expressed his condolences to Kim. He stated it’s tough to put into words the grief of losing their mentor and friend Jay Kim. He was a man who made an enormous difference in the world. Jay urged others around him to reject the skeptics and follow their creative instincts as a pioneer and visionary leader. His Nexon family and many friends will miss him greatly.
In 1994, Kim founded Nexon. He released the world’s first multiplayer online role-playing game, ‘The Kingdom of the Winds’. MapleStory, KartRider, Mabinogi, and Dungeon & Fighter were among the company’s later online games.
Furthermore, in 2011, the South Korean video game publishing company went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nexon became the first Korean gaming company to achieve 1 trillion won ($830 million) in annual sales. It was the year it went public after the IPO.
Nexon currently offers over 50 live games on a variety of platforms, including mobile, and is available in over 190 countries.
Gaining Popularity in Crypto
Nexon is making inroads into the crypto business, in addition to being known for its successful series of online games. It had planned to buy Bithumb, a leading cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, for half a billion dollars early last year. Negotiations between the two companies, however, fell through.
Nexon bought $100 million worth of Bitcoin in April of last year. The move puts the South Korean-Japanese video game publisher in the company of companies like MicroStrategy and Tesla, which have invested in the flagship cryptocurrency using corporate funds. Nexon paid an average of $58,226 for 1,717 Bitcoins, including fees and expenditures.
Other publicly traded companies, such as Tesla and MicroStrategy, have purchased Bitcoin as a strategy for their investors to protect themselves against inflation.
Mr. Owen Mahoney, the CEO of Nexon, remarked at the time that the Bitcoin purchase “reflects a disciplined strategy for protecting shareholder value and retaining the purchasing power of our cash assets.”
Nexon feels that, given the current economic climate, Bitcoin provides long-term liquidity and security while also keeping its monetary worth for future investments, according to the CEO.
Nexon began taking bitcoin as payment from players who wish to equip their characters with cash items in addition to US dollars in December of last year. Players can buy in-game things with Ethereum, Dogecoin, Bitcoin, and other crypto-assets, according to the business.
