What Is a Virtual Currency in Apps? Soft vs Hard Currency

What is a virtual currency in apps?

A virtual currency, or in-app currency, is a unit such as coins, points, gems, or credits that exists only inside your app, game, or website. Users earn it or buy it, then spend it there on items, upgrades, or features. You decide what it is called, how much of it a user gets for each action, and what it buys, and the balance is a number in your own database.

A virtual currency in this sense is not a cryptocurrency: it has no blockchain, no market price, and no value outside your app unless you build a way to cash it out.

Soft vs hard currency

Most free-to-play games and many apps run two currencies. Unity’s game economy design guide says “soft currency is usually earned through play and comes in the form of coins, gold, or energy,” while “hard currency is scarce and is typically tied to real money and is represented by gems, diamonds, and crystals.”

Apps that are not games often have only one currency: a rewards site pays points, an AI tool sells credits, a Discord bot pays server coins. One currency is simpler and works well when nothing else is sold for real money. The design of sources, sinks, and inflation is covered in depth in virtual economy design.

Earned vs bought currency

Where a unit came from matters more than its name. A user can get currency in three main ways:

• Earned by playing or using the app: levels, streaks, achievements. This costs you nothing in cash but drives inflation if it is open-ended.
• Earned from partners: rewarded ads or an offerwall, where an advertiser pays you and you pass part of that on as currency.
• Bought: an in-app purchase pack, such as 500 gems.

Many apps keep earned and bought units in one balance, which is easy for users but means the strictest rule for bought currency (for example, that it may not expire) applies to the whole balance. Others track them separately so they can, for example, spend bought gems last. Either way, keep a ledger of every change with its source, not only a total.

App Store and Google Play rules

If you sell currency inside a mobile app, the store rules apply. Checked on November 5, 2026:

• Apple, guideline 3.1.1. The App Store Review Guidelines say that to unlock features or functionality, “by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels,” you must use in-app purchase. They also say “any credits or in-game currencies purchased via in-app purchase may not expire.”
• Apple, guideline 3.1.5(v). “Cryptocurrency apps may not offer currency for completing tasks, such as downloading other apps, encouraging other users to download, posting to social networks, etc.” Another reason to keep your rewards in your own in-app currency.
• Google Play. The Payments policy lists “virtual currencies, extra lives, additional playtime” among the in-app items that must be sold through Google Play’s billing system. The same page describes the exceptions, so read it for your markets.

These rules are about how users pay you. A user who earns 400 coins by completing an offer has paid you nothing, so the offerwall does not replace in-app purchase. If the same coins are also sold, those sales go through the store. Offerwall rules for iOS apps covers Apple in detail, and Google Play’s incentivized install policy covers the advertiser side.

How an offerwall pays users in your currency

An offerwall shows offers, such as installing a game and reaching a level, with a reward in your currency next to each. The advertiser pays per completed result, you earn a US dollar payout, and the wall converts part of that payout into your currency with a formula like this:

reward = payout_usd x conversion_rate x (user_split / 100) x (1 + bonus / 100), then rounded

Illustrative example. You set 1,000 Coins per $1 and a 50% split to users. An offer pays you $0.80. The user sees 0.80 x 1,000 x 0.50 = 400 Coins. If your store sells 1,000 Coins for $0.99 (also illustrative), that offer gives the user about the value of a $0.40 purchase, while you earn $0.80 in cash. The virtual currency calculator runs these numbers for your own settings, and how to set your virtual currency exchange rate explains how to choose the rate and split.

The currency is then credited by your server when the offerwall sends a postback with the reward filled in. What are postback macros? explains the fields, and preventing duplicate reward credits shows how to credit each transaction once.

Virtual currency vs similar things

Credits that pay for usage, such as AI generations, behave like a soft currency with a real cost per unit. How to price AI credits covers that case.

Common virtual currency mistakes

• Too low a conversion rate. With whole-number rounding, small offers round to 0 and disappear from the wall. A rate of 100 or 1,000 per dollar keeps most of them visible.
• No sinks. If earned coins have nothing worth buying, users stop earning them. Plan what currency buys before you add new sources.
• Changing the rate often. Users notice when the same offer pays less. Use a time-limited bonus for promotions instead, as offerwall bonus events explains.

Where an offerwall fits

An offerwall is one source of currency among several. It suits apps and sites where users want more currency than play alone gives them, and where you are happy to let them get it by completing offers instead of buying it. It does not fit apps without any currency or reward to give, and it earns little where users have no reason to want more. Moonetix is a pay-per-result affiliate network: users complete offers on its offerwall, and they are paid in your currency with your name, icon, rate, and split.

Frequently asked questions