Game developer Gamevil said Monday that it has acquired a 13 percent stake in local cryptocurrency exchange Coinone.

It spent some 31.19 billion won ($27.9 million) to acquire the 8,474 shares of the crypto exchange.

“The acquisition is aimed at finding new business opportunities in the crypto and blockchain sectors,” said the company in a regulatory filing.

With the investment, Gamevil will work together with Coinone to develop solutions that prevent hacking attempts and handle a massive amount of data traffic in an efficient manner. Coinone is the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange platform by transaction volume in Korea.

Gaming firms have been paying keen attention to crypto exchanges in recent months. NXC, the holding company of gaming company Nexon, has been rumored to consider acquiring shares of crypto exchange Bithumb.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)