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Hong Kong-based Startup Animoca Brands Increases Shares in Kikitrade to Deepen Partnership

Following the social investment platform, Kikitrade’s plan to widen its participation in the blockchain gaming (GameFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) market, a Hong Kong-based startup company Animoca Brands has increased its shareholding in the firm to become the second-largest shareholder.

GameFi, also known as play-to-earn (P2E) games, has seen a recent upsurge enough to dominate the blockchain market for the past several quarters.

With comprehensive financial infrastructure, Kikitrade and Animoca Brands plan to promote new and upcoming GameFi projects with mutual cooperation.

Sean Tao, Co-founder and CEO of Kikitrade, said:

“The Kikitrade and Animoca Brands partnership is a turning point for enabling mass adoption of GameFi. With its social capabilities, Kikitrade will create an educational platform that connects GameFi players and CeFi users – on one hand streamlining GameFi players’ ability to monetize their gaming experience, while on the other hand introducing CeFi users to the GameFi ecosystem.”

Kikitrade started in 2020 with an aim to re-invent the crypto investing experience to allow professional traders, everyday investors and crypto-beginners to learn and invest in cryptocurrency. Currently, the company is serving in Hong Kong, Taiwan, SEA and Australia.

Animoca Brands is a digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification provider. Their portfolio of products includes the REVV token and SAND token; games, including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes.

Animoca Brands aims to deliver digital property rights to the world’s gamers and Internet users.

Many blockchain games like Animoca Brands’ The Sandbox have quickly become top applications of blockchain technology.

With a top-notch in-app community, Kikitrade provides a comprehensive platform for GameFi players, investors and traders to connect.

Also, Kikitrade plans to establish GameFi Studio in the near future to accelerate the development of GameFi and the NFT market.

Korean Government Reportedly Asks Google and Apple to Remove P2E Gaming Apps

Crackdowns targeting blockchain and cryptocurrency affiliated entities are taking a new twist in South Korea as the government has started blocking play-2-earn (P2E) gaming apps.

As reported by local media platform Naver, the government has requested global app marketplace operators such as Google and Apple to block the registration of related apps.

According to the reports, the subtle ban on P2E linked gaming applications was effected by the Game Management Committee under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, and it will notably impact the local distribution of games. The report detailed that the very first stage of the ban will be effected at the point where P2E games are planning to register with the government body which is expected to give a rating that will aid the games to launch.

Amongst the prominent P2E domestic game developers that the ban is impacting include ‘Five Stars for Clayton’ and ‘Infinite Breakthrough Three Kingdoms Reverse.’ As Naver reported, the Game Management Committee is always at the beck and call of the government to block a game hoping to launch, and it blocked the rating of Five Stars for Clayton back in April, a timeline that signalled this subtle play has long been in the works.

South Korea is a mixed country in terms of crypto innovation growth and regulatory clampdowns. The country’s market watchdogs sent a number of exchanges packing as they were unable to meet the requirement to partner with local banks for the sake of providing adequate Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks.

South Korea has also been looking to float a crypto tax rule, a move that has been postponed until further notice as the controversy and division surrounding the bill is notably too much. While no one understands the end game with respect to the ban on P2E games, there is a likelihood that the continuous growth and development of the GameFi ecosystem in Korea will make the government rescind its position in the near term.

Tokens.com Corp Launches Hulk Labs, Focusing on GamFi and NFT

Toronto-based publicly-traded Blockchain technology company Tokens.com Corp. has launched Hulk Labs, a platform focusing on Crypto-Play-to-Earn gaming and Non-fungible token (NFT) investment.

In addition to crypto staking and Metaverse businesses, Hulk Labs provides and monetizes investment opportunities in the gaming and NFT space for Tokens.com shareholders. Hulk Labs, a subsidiary of Tokens.com, will represent Tokens.com’s new Web3 vertical, focusing on the Play-to-Earn (P2E) space.

Play-to-earn (P2E), or GameFi, is the next major opportunity for Web3 and blockchain.

P2E is a popular business model that stays in the blockchain game world that integrates both Web3 and blockchain, which corresponds to the F2P (Free to Play) model common in the real world of the game industry.

Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Tokens.com, expressed his great pleasure to enter the new Web3 vertical with an excellent team, and hoped that in addition to providing investors with crypto assets related to Metaverse, DeFi and NFT, it will also develop games, becoming “one of the only public companies to offer a complete range of Web3 exposure”

He also added that the crypto gaming industry has grown dramatically over the past two quarters, with more than 600 games and a multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency market cap.

Tokens.com is a publicly-traded company that uses shareholder capital to invest in digital assets used for crypto staking and DeFi and also provides transaction processing and validation services for various digital assets that power Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications and Non-Fungible Token (NFT ) platforms.

The corporation is listed on exchanges in three different countries: Canada’s NEO Exchange: COIN; Germany’s Frankfurt Stock Exchange: 76M; OTCQB United States: SMURF.

Earlier this month, the Professional drone racing League (DRL) joined the Metaverse world by launching its first game. A money-making crypto sports game on the Algorand blockchain in partnership with Playground Labs, a Web 3 game developer from crypto investment fund Hivemind.

Cypher Capital Rolls Out Worth $100m Blockchain and Digital Assets Fund

To expand the blockchain ecosystem, UAE-based venture capital firm Cypher Capital has launched a $100 million seed fund with a special interest in digital asset investments.

The fund to be financed by Bijan Alizadeh, the firm’s founder, will be pumped into projects in decentralized finance (DeFi), metaverse, and blockchain gaming sectors.

Cypher Capital plans to create a holistic blockchain community by collaborating with outstanding talent, visionary innovators, and other venture capital partners to make a significant difference.

Alizadeh noted:

“We will collaborate closely with our portfolio projects, offering them access to our network and equipping them with our knowledge, as well as investing alongside other venture capital partners into innovative blockchain, crypto, and digital asset projects.”

With an assets under management (AUM) portfolio of $10 million, Cypher Capital plans to roll out between $2 million and $5 million on average each month with initial investments in South Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East regions.

Vineet Budki, a managing partner at Cypher Capital, stated:

“We have the knowledge and expertise to mentor projects and entrepreneurs and equip them with the tools they need for success. At the moment, we are especially interested in projects in the DeFi, GameFi, and metaverse space, but we are always on the lookout for innovative blockchain projects in general.”

The firm also intends to create a digital asset, blockchain, and crypto hub to connect startups with potential investors.

Earlier this week, Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, announced plans to back a crypto fund for the first time.

Venture funding, including pre-seed and seed, has hit $3.4 billion so far this year, according to Crunchbase data. This sector has experienced significant growth, given that crypto companies raised $34 billion in 2021, per a PWC report.

KuCoin Rolls Out Decentralized Crypto Wallet to Aid Web3.0 Exploration

As the gateway to explore and discover the Web3.0 world, KuCoin, a Seychelles-based crypto exchange, has rolled out a decentralized product dubbed KuCoin Wallet.

KuCoin Wallet offer crypto services to users with GameFi, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) functions for a convenient experience in the Web3.0 space.

Johnny Lyu, KuCoin’s CEO, explained:

“As the gateway to the Web 3.0 network, crypto wallets are an important requirement for users to participate in the decentralized ecosystem and have developed beyond a mere tool to store digital assets. The launch of the official website of KuCoin Wallet is additional proof that shows the determination of KuCoin to enter the Web 3.0 field at a critical time.”

The exchange sees the wallet as a stepping stone towards more investments in the Web3.0 sector.

Jeff Haul, the head of KuCoin Wallet, noted:

“KuCoin always hopes to better cater to the needs of all classes of investors. The release of the official website of KuCoin Wallet is one step further for KuCoin to make an exploration in Web 3.0.”

KuCoin said its wallet supports multi-chain aggregation powered by the KuCoin ecosystem. It allows users to create a decentralized account for Web 3.0 in seconds and send, receive, and store BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, BNB, and more tokens in one place, according to its statement.

In April, KuCoin launched a $100 million “Creators Fund” to accelerate Web3.0 growth and empower early-stage NFT projects, Blockchain.News reported.

With Web3.0 being a blockchain-powered iteration of the World Wide Web, concepts like token-based economics and decentralization are expected to be integrated. As a result, users will have full control over their data.

Recently, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a renowned Venture Capital (VC) firm, recently noted that Web3.0 was much better for creators than Web2.0.

Animoca Brands Subsidiary Lympo Launches SPORT Token

Animoca Brands subsidiary Lympo launched the SPORT token to replace the Lympo utility token LMT.

The SPORT token has been launched on the MEXC exchange (SPORT/USDT pair) and on the decentralized exchange Quickswap (SPORT/MATIC and other pairs). The SPORT token contract is bridged to Polygon Network and BNB Chain.

The announcement also added that the replacement will reflect the extensive overhaul and enrichment of Lympo’s GameFi ecosystem.

The overhaul will include SPORT token integration into the upcoming basketball manager and spell chess games in cooperation with Magnus Carlsen – the best chess player in the world – and his team.

The new token will also enable engagement in Lympo’s treasury management governed by decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) principles.

The new ERC-20 token was introduced following a security incident earlier in the year. It suffered a cyberattack that duly impacted its hot wallets, leading to a loss of approximately 165.2 million LMT tokens (worth around USD 16.5m before the hack), Blockchain.News.

Lympo is working on a GameFi product suite which will consist of officially licensed athletes’ non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Lympo’s existing products – Lympo NFT Minting and Lympo NFT Staking Platforms – will allow SPORT holders to earn credits, mint NFTs, and stake NFTs together with tokens.

It is aiming to launch its first game later this year. The basketball manager game will include a generative art NFT collection of fantasy and real basketball players as well as the possibility to utilize other Lympo NFTs to upgrade the gameplay.

The company is also developing a blockchain-powered chess-inspired game in collaboration with the Play Magnus Group’s Champions Chess Tour. The announcement added that the SPORT token will serve as a gateway to both of these games.

Lympo will also allocate 2.5% of SPORT’s total token supply and a part of proceeds from its NFT sales to its treasury. The announcement also added that the Lympo LMT tokens will change their utility and become an in-game play-to-earn currency.

Gamefi 'Land of Conquest' gets Backing from Huobi Ventures, to Start Beta Version in Aug

Blockchain gamefi Land of Conquest has received investment from venture capital firm Huobi Ventures, who also signed as the lead investor in the game.

Other investors included Mirana Ventures, PopFun, CCV, C2, New Start Ventures, NGC Ventures, K300 Venture and CryptoPhd participating.

Ray Lee, Land of Conquest co-founder and blockchain industry veteran, said “the Land of Conquest team is strongly focused on providing a fun gaming experience, and also pushing forward as quickly as possible to bring highly engaging play-to-earn content to market. This recent investment by Huobi will partly go towards ensuring the successful launch of the game, with a closed beta scheduled to launch in August. We have every expectation that it will be a smash hit!”

Following the successful backing from Huobi, the Land of Conquest creative team plans to launch a closed beta version of Land of Conquest’s Massive Multiplayer Online Simulate Life Game (MMOSLG) game in August.

It is now about 90% encoded and supported by over 97,000 fans from various media platforms.

“We are impressed to see Land of Conquest attract such wide pre-launch support, and excited to see them grow. They have a solid play-to-earn game premise with proven market potential, and more importantly, all signs point toward this game actually being very fun to play. For these reasons, we believe that Land of Conquest will do very well in the GameFi space,” said a representative from Huobi Ventures.

The support of a subsidiary of the Huobi Exchange Group, which ranks among the top ten global cryptocurrency exchanges, will lay the foundation for the successful launch of the game.

The Land of Conquest game will allow players to enter a post-apocalyptic wasteland in a variety of semi-realistic ways to base, produce goods, train heroes, and interact with other players’ characters and hostile NPCs.

Players can also earn tokens and NFTs by participating in PvP battles in the game. In this game, NFTs will be used to represent multiple important in-game assets including land, heroes and mechs, which are extra attribute bonuses used to strengthen the players’ fortresses.

Play-to-earn (P2E), or GameFi, is the next major opportunity for Web3 and blockchain.

Despite the crypto winter, innovative platforms such as blockchain infrastructure platform Immutable continue to attract capital to scale and support the growth of their ecosystems.

Immutable has launched a new $500 million fund for backing protocols that are building web3 games and NFT-focused companies on its layer-2 Ethereum-focused platform, Immutable X.

GameFi Industry Expected to Reach $2.8B by 2028

The growth and adoption of the crypto GameFi business are expected to make the game-earning non-fungible token (NFT) gaming industry reach $2.8 billion by 2028, according to Absolute Reports, a company that provides market research services.

The report shows that while the cryptocurrency market is going through a “crypto winter,” WAX and Binance Smart Chain have stable community numbers with 2.94 million and 2.49 million customers, respectively.

The rise in popularity of playable and earnable non-fungible token (NFT) games on the Ethereum sidechain is a significant boost as blockchain gaming provides users with a simple, accessible and engaging way to An important factor in the growth of blockchain gaming.

The GameFi market is analysed based on type, console, and market region. The report also delves into a detailed analysis of the market-leading companies, including Sky Mavis, Dapper Labs, Decentraland, Immutable, and The Sandbox.

The report further revealed that blockchain gaming attracted 1.22 million active user wallets (UAWs) in March this year.

DappRadar’s research shows that blockchain gaming leads the way in decentralised applications, accounting for 52% of blockchain activity.

The data shows that VCs’ interest in investing in gamefi startups during the downturn has been increasing.

In early July, Blockchain gamefi Land of Conquest received investment from venture capital firm Huobi Ventures, who also signed as the lead investor in the game.

Blockchain game “Cross the Ages” (CTA) has received a $12 million seed round from gaming crypto investment firm Animoca Brands, video game developer Ubisoft, and Sebastian Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox.

Play-to-earn (P2E), or GameFi, is the next major opportunity for Web3 and blockchain.

The intense crypto bear market, which has fueled a significant increase in the number of customers for blockchain-based games, is considered a springboard for further growth in the crypto ATM market.

Another study projected the crypto ATM market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.4% over the forecast period, six years from 2022 to 2028.

Bybit-Backed Gaming Platform Enters the Web3 World for Enhanced Experience

Yeeha Games, a $50 million-funded GameFi platform backed by crypto exchange Bybit, has entered the Web3 world to act as the bridge between gaming and finance (GameFi) and traditional gaming.

Yeeha Games renders an ecosystem where users can exchange in-game assets. Therefore, the platform intends to present various blockchain games over the next eighteen months for an enhanced Web3 experience.

Choy Wai Cheong (Choy), the co-founder and COO of Yeeha Games, pointed out:

“The GameFi industry saw incredible growth in 2021. But when compared to the traditional gaming market, we still see a massive untapped potential. To attract traditional gamers to web3, we must have games that appeal to them.”

“Integrating blockchain elements into game genres with proven success in the traditional gaming market is a good starting point — and that’s where Yeeha Games is positioned,” Cheong added.

The free-to-play games offered by Yeeha Games act as a stepping stone toward Web3 gaming because users are not required to purchase cryptocurrencies.

Ben Zhou, the co-founder, and CEO of Bybit, stated:

“We are excited about the future of GameFi, and how it could realize the promise of the metaverse and internet through gaming. Through this partnership, we want to demonstrate our commitment to driving technology innovations to the wider society.”

By generating a level playing field, Zhou believes GameFi has the capability of connecting people worldwide when building virtual and digital worlds. He added:

“It promotes the ideology of putting power back in the hands of the people with a player-owned economy.”

Meanwhile, InfiniteWorld, a metaverse, and Web3 infrastructure company, recently acquired Super Bit Machine to enhance the crossover between gaming and blockchain platforms.

The acquisition was also aimed at offering best-in-class experiences in the metaverse world by incorporating multiplayer and real-time game development abilities, Blockchain.News reported.

Metaverse Will Bring About the "Construction of New Economies" – Animoca CEO

Yat Siu, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Animoca Brands has shared his thoughts on what he believes the metaverse is metamorphosing into in the near future.

Speaking at the Future Blockchain Summit, the veteran industry leader noted that the metaverse is not a central entity and is bound to stir the advent of new economies that will benefit its adopters.

In the explanation for his position about the highly talked-about marketplace, Siu said industries cannot be quantities based on a single metric, and that the collective performance of key offshoots of the ecosystem often comes together to make a whole.

“Metaverse to us is a whole economy. We don’t want to measure the future of these companies using PNL, we want to measure it in terms of GDP. Just like we can’t define Ethereum’s value by how much gas it generates but rather its utility as a whole, in the same way, the metaverse is an all-accomplishing picture. So, thematically, it’s a metaverse; but practically, itu2019s digital ownership.”

Siu faults the usurping role big tech companies like Google and Facebook have played in the evolution of the gaming industry thus far. According to him, the bigger portion of the more than $200 billion industry is controlled by big tech with little going to the game developers and almost nothing to players.

Per the model of Web3.0, Siu believes this anomaly will be corrected, creating an economy whereby everyone will be fairly compensated for their participation in the ecosystem.

“More than half of the value that is generated in the gaming industry goes to Apple, Facebook and Google. How much of that goes back to the gaming industry? Zero. This is the issue today, and it makes the ecosystem unhealthy.”

Yat Siu, whose company owns The Sandbox metaverse and has invested in hundreds of gaming protocols believes GameFi is one of the contending avenues by which users will be onboarded into the Web3.0 industry.