MindArk PE AB, the company that operates the Entropia Universe online game, said it has sold a virtual banking license to a banking company.
The Gothenburg, Sweden, company had put up for auction five licenses to operate financial services companies within its fictional world. On Tuesday it said that one went to a Russian online payments company, Moneta.ru, and another was sold to a person who goes by the Entropia screen name Janus JD D'Arcwire and represents an unnamed banking company.
The other three went to individuals.
David Simmonds, MindArk's business development director, said that the banking company is not based in the United States.
The winners paid a total of $404,000 for the licenses, MindArk said; the unnamed banking company paid the lowest price, $59,060, and Moneta.ru paid the highest, $99,900.
Entropia's currency, known as the PED, can be converted to U.S. dollars and withdrawn in cash at the rate of 10 PEDs for each $1.
MindArk says that a virtual bank could offer real financial products and services to players, such as loans for characters to purchase land or set up a business, and could earn actual revenue by charging interest on the loans.
MindArk said that the license holders must put in $100,000 of seed capital to get a virtual bank up and running.
