Lynx payment infrastructure adapts to the Metaverse

Lynx presents itself as an infrastructure dedicated to payment. This Canadian company operating internationally took advantage of the beginning of the year to specify its strategic ambitions for the future. Its adaptation to the new Metaverse environment is considered a priority; it seeks to establish itself as a reference company for bridging the gap between the digital and real economies.

FACTS

• Canadian company Lynx has announced that it has expanded its financial infrastructure to include support for Metaverse-based services.

• Lynx plans to open up this type of service to its Southeast Asian customers as a first step. The company is building on its recent acquisition of Binangonan Rural Bank (BRB, a Filipino rural bank focused on digital services), which allows it to benefit from a dual banking and e-money issuer licence.

• This positioning of financial services in the Metaverse is primarily preparatory; it aims to assess the opportunities of this new environment. But Lynx has already identified two possible use cases:

• Play to earn (P2E) attached to blockchain games allowing to earn digital assets (crypto-currencies or NFT) and create value online,

• money transfers.

• In fact, 540 billion dollars were transferred to developing countries in 2020 alone according to the World Bank. Lynx intends to create spaces, within the Metaverse, to help families exchange and transfer money across the world.

CHALLENGES

• Emerging new gateway solutions: The platform will allow existing and emerging payment applications to flourish in the Metaverse. But above all, Lynx intends to create bridges between the virtual and real economies by allowing Internet users to cash in their NFT token earnings in cash or on a Lynx prepaid card, for example, so that they can then buy products in the real world or pay their bills.

• Promoting inclusion: Lynx's main objective is to leverage the Metaverse to promote financial inclusion through digital technology. The company is aiming to deploy its services in South East Asia, where it estimates that 70% of the population is still underbanked.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The P2E market generated $2.5 billion in the first half of 2021 according to Reuters. It thus represents a strong trend, which is still in the making but which already offers many opportunities.

• This market has notably benefited from the pandemic to explode, particularly in Asia, and is now also benefiting from the advances made by web giants such as Meta (Facebook) on the subject to become more democratic.