Coinone Publicly Ranks Employees by AI Token Use in Real Time

Real-time display of AI token use by employee

Some staff use billions of tokens a month

Rewards for top AI performers as AX gains speed

A large monitor covering an entire wall stands at the entrance to crypto exchange Coinone’s headquarters at Parc.1 in Yeouido, Seoul. At the top of the screen are the total cost of artificial intelligence tokens, the basic unit of AI computing, along with application programming interface usage, user counts and response times. Below that, Coinone employees’ IDs are listed 10 at a time in order of token use. The display is the company’s “AI Token Dashboard,” introduced in February.

Coinone is tallying employees’ use of the generative AI model Claude and ranking them in real time, the company said on November 4. The aim is to spur competitive use of AI by making each employee’s usage public. Employees who rank near the top in monthly token use also receive separate rewards. Some employees use billions of tokens a month, a Coinone official said.

Coinone’s AI Token Dashboard is an example of a South Korean crypto exchange adopting the “token maxing” culture spreading through Silicon Valley. Token maxing refers to handing as much work as possible to AI to maximize productivity. The idea is to leave repetitive tasks to AI while employees focus on work that requires creativity and judgment.

Crypto exchanges, with their heavy load of repetitive work, are considered well suited to using AI to improve efficiency. Digital assets can be traded freely by individuals without going through a specific financial company. Unlike most financial firms, which operate within set business hours, crypto exchanges run around the clock every day of the year. That makes it difficult for workers bound by normal labor-hour limits to monitor exchange operations 24 hours a day.

That is also why Coinone, led by Chief Executive Officer Cha Myung-hoon, is accelerating its AI transformation, or AX. Since April, the company has been holding an internal presentation event called “Show Me the AI.” The event is used to share examples of AI use at work, along with trial and error and lessons learned. Employees get a chance to present if their proposal receives more than 10 endorsements from co-workers. Presenters receive gift certificates worth as much as $360. More recently, the company developed “Coincraft,” a platform that lets employees build work apps by chatting with AI agents.

The results produced through AI use, and how much they improve work efficiency, are also reflected in evaluations, the official added. As more successful cases are shared, more employees are trying to learn how to use AI.

Park Si-on, Hankyung.com reporter ushire908@hankyung.com