ZBD, the Bitcoin payments company backed by $46.5 million from investors including Lakestar and Kingsway Capital, has brought native Bitcoin rewards to one of the mobile industry’s most downloaded titles. Idle Bank, a 12-million-download hit from French publisher TapNation, now allows players to earn satoshis instantly via the Bitcoin Lightning Network — without ads, third-party apps, or leaving the game.
The partnership marks the first time a mainstream mobile game has embedded real-money Bitcoin rewards directly into its gameplay. The integration has already delivered striking results: a 355% jump in 30-day retention and a 124% increase in revenue per player since launch. These metrics suggest that Bitcoin rewards could become a high-impact tool for mobile game studios looking to deepen engagement without compromising user experience.
Embedded Rewards: A Shift From “Rewarded Play” Apps
Until now, rewarded gameplay — where players earn value through play — has mostly been tied to separate “rewards apps” that direct users to partner games. While effective for acquiring high-value users, this model limits scale and often works best for in-app purchase (IAP)-driven games due to the high cost of user acquisition.
ZBD’s new embedded rewards SDK changes that equation. By placing rewards directly into the gameplay loop, the system works for both ad-monetized and IAP-driven titles.
“We’re using real-money payments to make a game more worth playing,” said Ben Cousens, Chief Strategy Officer at ZBD. “And removing all the complexity that usually comes with payments to create a solution tailor-made for mobile game studios.”
The technology has already been deployed in over 20 games from seven publishers, including Fumb Games, PlayEmber, and Hazmob. Older titles like Merge Monsters saw a 181% boost in seven-day retention after years of stagnation, while new releases such as Crypto Idle Tycoon recorded similar triple-digit retention lifts.
Bitcoin Lightning Network Under the Hood
While developers can customize how rewards are displayed in-game — even hiding the Bitcoin brand entirely — all transactions run over the Bitcoin Lightning Network. This enables microtransactions as small as one cent to be sent instantly to players worldwide.
For Idle Bank, this means satoshis are credited seamlessly during play, without additional steps or payment friction. Players can withdraw their earnings at any time, effectively turning casual mobile gaming into a gateway for Bitcoin adoption.
Philippe Lenormand, Head of Web3 at TapNation, believes the integration arrives at a pivotal moment for the industry: “ZBD is taking a bold approach to boosting game monetization while keeping players happy. Embedded rewards have the potential to transform performance for games, especially those that partly rely on ad monetization.”
A Proven Engagement Driver
Data from the early rollouts suggest that embedded Bitcoin rewards could be one of the strongest levers for boosting lifetime value in mobile gaming. By aligning incentives — rewarding players with real money for their time and engagement — ZBD’s model reduces churn and enhances monetization without forcing design compromises.
This success builds on ZBD’s recent milestone with SaruTobi, which became the first iOS game approved by Apple to integrate native Bitcoin microtransactions as in-app purchases. With the embedded rewards SDK now live, developers can launch similar integrations in under a week.
The company’s long-term vision is to normalize real-money flows within gaming. “Rewards are proven beyond doubt to improve the value exchange between games and gamers,” Cousens said. “Embedded rewards unlock that potential beyond the constraints of rewarded UA channels.”
From Web3 Buzzword to Mainstream Feature
For years, blockchain gaming has been synonymous with niche, often speculative, Web3 titles. By integrating Bitcoin rewards into an already-popular mobile game without requiring users to manage wallets or tokens, ZBD is showing how crypto utility can be introduced to mainstream audiences.
With TapNation’s Idle Bank as a proof point, any mobile developer — from hypercasual studios to narrative-driven game makers — can now experiment with turning playtime into an on-ramp for digital currency adoption. For an industry under pressure from user acquisition costs and shifting ad targeting rules, the model offers an alternative path to growth.
If these retention and revenue uplifts hold at scale, Bitcoin rewards may soon become as common in mobile gaming as leaderboards and daily challenges — only this time, the prizes are real money.
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