Uphold Expands Partnership with IMVU: Enabling Web3 Payments in the Metaverse

[PRESS RELEASE – London, United Kingdom, November 13th, 2023]

With the aim to build engagement in the metaverse and streamline the digital payments process, IMVU integrates Topper by Uphold to benefit its peer-to-peer community made up of over 3 million users.

Uphold, the global web3 financial platform, announced that by the end of November, IMVU, the world’s largest web3 social metaverse, will integrate Uphold’s fiat-to-crypto on-ramp, Topper, to simplify payments and empower the largest and most active crypto economy in the metaverse. Topper brings simple transactions to the next generation of IMVU’s flourishing creator economy by bridging a simple web2 experience with the benefits of web3.

With over 700k daily active users spanning across more than 100 countries, the need for a frictionless user experience is paramount to the mainstream adoption of digital assets in virtual social worlds. The broader partnership between Uphold and IMVU includes initiatives to transition IMVU from Web2 to Web3, allowing web2 users to access VCORE and embrace the evolving web3 ecosystem.

“We believe that web3 payments will continue to be the way of the future, as it creates more value, ownership, and participation than traditional web2 payments. On IMVU alone, over 20 million virtual goods are bought and sold each month,” said Robin O’Connell, CEO of Uphold Enterprise. “We have been proud to serve the IMVU users with our digital asset platform and now with Topper – providing a user-friendly gateway for purchasing the new VCORE.”

The ability to seamlessly transact and transfer digital assets between virtual and real worlds is pivotal for unleashing the full potential of the metaverse economy. Users want to earn where they play but then take those earnings into real life to spend, save, and invest, bridging the gap between virtual experiences and real-world financial activities.

Partnership Details:

• Since the beginning of this partnership in September 2020, over 1.5 million IMVU users have created crypto wallets using the Uphold platform. With the integration of Topper, IMVU users have immediate access to utilize cryptocurrencies in the metaverse effortlessly.
• IMVU has already integrated Uphold’s API with its token, VCOIN, which is listed on the Uphold exchange. Users with Uphold accounts can easily convert their in-game VCOIN earnings to fiat currency. VCOIN is the third digital token to secure a no-action letter from the staff of the SEC, proof of how a digital asset can be properly managed in the metaverse.
• IMVU recently unveiled a new exchange-listed digital token, VCORE, integrated with Uphold’s fiat-to-crypto on-ramp, Topper. Now, IMVU users outside of US & Canada have access to VCORE. Designed for NFT and Metaverse creators and communities, VCORE emphasizes regulatory compliance and empowers the community to help shape the virtual world, fostering an environment where individuals can create, earn, own, play, and participate in its future.

“For nearly two decades, we have been building our community at IMVU. Our collaboration with Uphold was driven by their cutting-edge payment solutions, offering a seamless and globally-accessible payment mechanism to our members,” stated John Burris, Chief Strategy & Blockchain Officer of IMVU.

IMVU has a massive global community, a dynamic economy, and passionate creators/earners. Topper’s integration aims to streamline and simplify financial transactions, particularly catering to the challenges faced by users and creators within the virtual world.

To learn more, please visit topperpay.com/.

About Uphold

Ranked #1 in the San Francisco Business Times Fast 100 List, Uphold is committed to making web3 easy. As a Web3 financial platform, Uphold serves over 10 million customers in more than 140 countries. It provides businesses and consumers with easy access to digital assets and services. Uphold’s unique “Anything to Anything” interface gives end users seamless access to and between digital assets and national currencies and precious metals. Uniquely, Uphold smart routes orders across 30 trading venues delivering optimal execution and superior liquidity to customers. Uphold never loans out customer assets and is always 100% reserved. The company has pioneered radical transparency and uniquely publishes its assets and liabilities every 30 seconds on a public website (https://uphold.com/en-us/transparency).

Uphold is regulated in the U.S. by FinCen and State regulators; and is registered in the UK and Canada with the FCA and FINTRAC respectively and in Europe with the Financial Crime Investigation Service under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania. To learn more about Uphold’s products and services, visit uphold.com.